A Magical Complex
by Wachan
Summary: Jeanne can't help that she's nothing extraordinary, especially when she arrives at Hogwarts. Being muggleborn, magic sets her far apart from everyone else...
1. Only God Knows Where That's Been

Jeanne was the image of everything normal and quite mundane. Nothing special but her little talent to draw set her apart from others her age, and now the stretch to "normal" has been entirely remade. She's bee thrust into a magical new life at Hogwarts, and drawing isn't all that special now! It's magic that matters here, and something she has to get used to. Being shy and quiet, she doesn't have anyone to talk to or help her, but only the company of a friendly brown falcon. It's a trick fitting into a new place, although molding your personality to fit new people isn't Jeanne's idea of a friendship. How will people accept her and her somwhat "childish" personality? She has to find at least one person to trust at first...

Sorry the first chapter is so tedious. This is a really slow start, and hard to get going, but the story needed to start somewhere. None of the regular Harry Potter characters come in till the next chapter, and it get's interesting after this, so I hope you're not so bored with this chapter you won't go on. If you have any tips for writing or just flat out how to write a better beginning, then leave a note--I'd really appreciate the help!

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Chapter 1

Only God Knows Where That's Been

A little girl sat so quietly on a bench she was almost invisible. Men and women walked past the little bus stop in the little city of Great Britain, never taking a glance at this unimportant, mundane, little girl. Probably the only thing worth a double take would be the falcon rustling its wings occasionally on the girl's shoulder, but even it was ordinary, and unusually quiet.

The girl, Jeanne, sat gazing so transfixed at the busy traffic it almost appeared as if she expected there to be an accident, but still she bothered no one. She didn't even mind when the falcon's wings tickled her face when it moved. Sometimes her eyes moved about distractedly when a little bird flew by, or a child whined at his mother as they passed, but her eyes were so distant one would think she couldn't see them.

Jeanne's eyes began to follow a woman carrying a black journal in one hand, and a journal bag over her other shoulder. The falcon caught her eyes and made a little caw, ruffling his wings again. Jeanne caught eyes with the woman as well and gave a sweet, sincere smile, her eyes squished brightly by it. The woman smiled back. She continued for another couple of paces, but abruptly took one back and turned to look at them again.

She sat down to the side of Jeanne where the falcon was perched on her shoulder, which observed her curiously, turning its head this way and that and stretching its neck. Jeanne took in the woman in the short moment before she spoke. The woman's slightly bushy, cherry blond hair draped just past her shoulders. She had fairly pale skin, brightened by a colorful pink nose and cheeks. She also looked quite ordinary as well, in a plain, loose forest-green sweater and blue jeans. Jeanne looked innocently into the woman's pretty green eyes.

"What a beautiful bird," the woman said with a smile. She moved her hand to stroke the falcon gently, who allowed her graciously.

Jeanne smiled in return.

"His name is Vires."

"Vires," the woman echoed almost dreamily. "That's such a wonderful name. I'll have to remember that one." She gave Vires another soft stroke and set her hand back in her lap, and looked at Jeanne. "So what's a young girl like you doing sitting all by herself? Are your parents around?"

Jeanne smiled, "No."

The woman paused for a moment and spoke again.

"Are you waiting for someone?"

"I'm not quite sure what I'm doing," Jeanne smiled again. Before the woman could speak again, she held her left wrist out to Vires and allowed him to jump lightly from his perch on her shoulder onto it, startling the woman slightly, who only half-laughed afterward.

"He's such a beautiful, powerful animal, don't you think?" Jeanne said quite seriously, holding him about a foot or so out and examined him. Vires only cawed quietly and ruffled the feathers on his wings and chest. The woman looked at him for a moment before answering.

"Yes, absolutely," she said with a half smirk. Jeanne was leading up to something. Jeanne tilted her head and smiled as she continued to gaze at Vires.

"Yup; I thought that such a _magical_-" she stressed "magical" obviously and continued talking, "-creature would possibly be able to lead me to some _magical_ sort of people." Jeanne finished with a large smile across her face. She moved her arm up close to her and kissed Vires' head delicately, who bowed to accept it.

The woman sat silently startled for a moment and stared back and forth between Vires and Jeanne. However, suddenly the woman smiled too, and Jeanne turned to smile back. She got the picture.

"So you know I'm a witch, do you, little girl?" the woman's voice dropped so low only Jeanne and Vires would have possibly been able to hear her. Jeanne gave her a guilty smirk.

"Yeah I knew," she answered; her voice dropped as well. "And I knew _you_ knew that Vires was a magical creature." The woman relaxed in her seat a bit. "Actually I was hoping someone would come by eventually-"

"So you were waiting for me?" the woman asked surprised.

"No!" Jeanne laughed. "But I knew someone would, and maybe someone would stop to talk about him."

"Are your parents…you know," the woman asked. Jeanne took a second before she answered; her eyes shifted nervously and narrowed a bit.

"No…" she said slowly and so quietly, it was almost nothing more than a breath. She knew what the woman was thinking and hurried to put the words together correctly in her head. "You'd think I'm just a little muggle child, ordinarily, but…there's a…story to it all." Jeanne paused again but then looked back at the woman with a sort of sad, worried expression.

"You don't hate me now, do you!" she said without warning, almost as if she were frightened. The woman smiled and laughed heartily at Jeanne's sudden change of attitude. Her odd new childish behavior was unexpected compared to the previous moments.

"Of course I don't, you silly girl!" she laughed again. Jeanne smirked, but remained apprehensive. "There's nothing to worry about," she woman continued kindly. "So why don't you grab a cup o' tea with me and tell me that story of yours?"

"I would be honored," answered Jeanne politely.

There were a few seconds of a friendly silence before the woman nearly jumped off the bench.

"Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry! I never introduced myself! Good gracious, I sat down next to you and never explained a thing! That must have been so odd for you," the woman smirked embarrassedly. "My name's Mary. I'm sorry I never said anything; please forgive me. Most of the time my mind is so busy and wandering I forget simple courtesy from time to time." Mary laughed at her self and held out her hand to shake Jeanne's as the bus began to pull up.

"No, it's alright. There are worse ways to insult me, I'm no more hurt or upset than having a marshmallow chucked at me!" Jeanne laughed, shaking Mary's hand with her right hand; Vires was still on the other. "My name is Jeanne," she said as they stood up and boarded the bus.

Mary hopped on first, offering the muggle money to get on board for both of them. When Jeanne tried to board though, the driver stopped her.

"Hey, kid, no animals allowed," he said sternly. Mary looked back at Jeanne.

"It's okay," she told Mary as she held out her arm to let Vires take off. "He knows his way." Vires stretched his magnificent wings and pushed off of Jeanne's arm, grazing over the buildings and soaring out of sight. Mary allowed Jeanne the window seat, and for a moment, Jeanne peered out of it as if to make sure Vires was all right. Mary made herself comfortable next to Jeanne and smiled kindly at her.

"So where did you get him?" Mary asked.

"Well, I just met him. I have so much respect for him; he is my friend, not my pet. He was the first friend I made when I…came here."

"Where did you come from?" Mary gave her a puzzled look.

Jeanne smirked before she said, "Another world."

Mary stared completely taken aback; Jeanne started into a story, her imagery so detailed it was as if the real memory were being translated into Mary's head.

"I dropped down here as usual-" she began.

A little girl dropped out of nowhere and got herself caught in a tree.

"Ahh! You think I'd be used to this after going to so many worlds, jeez!" wailed Jeanne as she tried to untangle her mini skirt and boot laces from the branches she had so brilliantly landed into. The small portal a little way above where she landed shrank away as if symbolizing she was stuck there. She freed herself and leapt out of the tree almost as gracefully as she had gotten into it. She had frightened many animals out of the tree and any near by, and that would probably explain why so many birds were screeching at her.

"Oh, shut-up, you stupid bird-brain!" she muttered as she brushed herself off. Suddenly, she dropped down on the ground so fast you'd think her legs turned jelly. She grabbed her foot and goggled at it as wide as her eyes would open.

"I scuffed my boots! You stupid tree!" she stood up and kicked it, but then realized she had just bestowed another gash on her precious "shit-kickers". She pouted her lips out irritably and began to march off, singing a little tune so shrilly and out of pitch that if any of the animals had stuck around they would have died.

Apparently, Jeanne had landed in this new world in a forest somewhere, hopefully not to far from a town. Of course, it was to her convenience that no one saw her so she would avoid getting into a big mess straight off. It was hard enough trying to explain things to people privately, one at a time. As she walked along, she thought of how she was going to explain to people, and how she was going to get by there. She was only eleven after all; at least she looked like it. She had changed her physical age so many times and had to relate her story repeatedly to people she met that she was getting very good at it; she could tell it was even beginning to be slightly colorized in certain places.

Jeanne had very long hair that hung down to the middle of her back. Its color however was very plain, it almost disappointed her sometimes; a sort of faded brown, it almost looked gray sometimes, but other, luckier times it seemed to have a little gold highlight when the sun glared down on it. She had pale skin from lack of sunlight, which was probably why her hair looked so gray as well, and maybe just a little bit from malnourishment. She was also very skinny, so much that people have even teased her about it. Her shirt definitely complimented her "contours", as it wasn't all that loose. She didn't choose to be that skinny though, but she couldn't help her peckish appetite and high metabolism either. Her short-sleeve shirt was a fairly unexciting light blue, but didn't look bad on her. Her hazel eyes, which bordered on brown most of the time, seemed a little greener, probably due to her outfit. She wore a simple black skirt that was oddly light and flowing. Cute, but the slightest breeze could make it float up dangerously; she always wore shorts under her skirts. No fun for the guys.

Jeanne continued her spirited trot through the small forest, reducing her screeching to a much softer humming, and better-sung tune than before. After a minute or two she spotted a little figure swoop beneath the tree line and weave in and out of the light pouring between the leaves and branches. Then, a second later, it swooped back up.

Jeanne forged on for a few more paces before something scraped her on the back of her head.

"What the heck!" she squeaked and whirled around. At first, she saw nothing, until a large bird circled around her head several times before reaching out it's talons for her face again. "Stop that!" she shouted as she ducked under its armored feet to keep from loosing about six eyes. "Calm down, calm down! I'm not going to hurt you!" she coaxed it. The bird landed on a low branch near by and examined her suspiciously. Using the opportunity to get a good look at it, she observed that it was a simple falcon, with black-tipped wings (as one would have it).

"What are you so hyped up about, you silly-willy?" she asked it. It responded with a distrustful glare.

"I'm not going to hurt you, or any of your friends," she tried to reassure it. "Here," she said and held out her arm. "I'll prove it." The falcon shifted wearily on its perch and fluffed its wings, frustrated. Eventually he took a perch on her extended arm; it had retaliations planned if anything went afoul.

Jeanne just smiled and said, "See, I told you, sweetie." She reached up her other hand slowly to pet its head, but it snapped its beak dangerously at her, clipping her forefinger.

"Oww!" she yelped softly as she removed her hand. "It's okay, see?" She held out her bloody finger and let the falcon watch as it healed up as if her skin had a little zipper. His grip on her arm lightened a bit, and he stretched out his neck to examine the once wounded finger more closely. "It's alright, baby," she said again very softly, beaming down at him. Jeanne shifted the weight onto her other leg, making him waver, spreading his wings warningly; but she held out her hand calmly and invitingly. He finally worked up to her hand and nipped it softly.

"Yeah, it's okay. It's okay," she said soothingly, stroking his head. "I won't let anyone hurt you." She seemed to have made a deep connection with him, as if he suddenly knew everything about this stranger. He leapt from her arm and re-perched himself on her shoulder.

"You silly. I guess I'm okay then," she giggled. He flapped his outer wing as if communicating to keep walking.

"Are you going to assist me?" she asked him playfully. He cawed back just as playfully and rustled his wings again. "Well, since you're going to be my friend, I'm going to have to have a name for you," she laughed. "Do you have a particular name?"

He again flapped his wings ("No").

"Then would you mind if I called you Vires? You just," she looked at him tenderly, "remind me of something very powerful, and I think that it would suit you well."

Vires flapped his wings in agreement and took off ahead of her.

"Hey! Wait up for me!" Jeanne shouted and pranced after him.

"He lead me to the place I would inevitably meet you," she told Mary with a smile. "Personally," she made an even larger, ear-to-ear grin, "I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship!" She giggled playfully.

"So it would seem," Mary laughed. "But you still haven't explained about how you can travel to these different worlds." Jeanne suddenly laughed again, but less playfully.

"Now _that_ is going to be a mouth full!" Jeanne smirked. "I hope you're ready!" She went on to explain how she had left her world and began traveling to different worlds and met so many different people, each giving her unique experiences and life lessons, as one might say; ultimately weaving a colorful vignette of a lifetime. She explain how each time she had to re-tell her story, sometimes reliving some of the more painful memories, and how she had to keep most of it under wraps from most people to keep out of trouble and confusion. She added that it was particularly difficult because she had a problem with keeping things to herself; she had a hard time keeping secrets; had to share everything with _everyone_. She even continued her long tale as they got off the bus and walked to the little coffee shop.

Seated on cushioned, black-iron chairs at a small table, Jeanne began to go into more intricate details of arriving in a new world. The whole time she swirled her finger around the rim of her cup—nervous habit.

"So you see," she told Mary, who was so attentive to Jeanne's words she was leaning seriously on her elbow on the table, "It's a little difficult and unusual for an _eleven year old_ to own a house and support herself with a professional job that she shouldn't have nearly half the skills for yet." She was referring to her animating (note: she was much older in her real world): she'd work on it on her computer and send it to the company she "works" for in her home world; she's gotten very good at getting away with working in different worlds. Moreover, she had the skill and experience, enough to get her good pay; _really_ good pay. She also did odd jobs, like commissions from people she met or lived near, and other various odd jobs; even babysitting. She loved little kids (she _was_ a little kid—at heart).

"I need to find a place to stay, with an older person who could pose as a sort of "parent" figure, but of course to no expense to them. I'd be able to help around the house and pay rent—anything. But I need someone I can trust."

"That's fine! I live in a house that I rent out to people; it has four other rooms upstairs, but no one is living there right now. Actually, it's getting a little harder to keep up with payments. You see, I'm a writer, and I'm sure, as an artist you know those kinds of things don't always have a steady income. That's why I rent out my rooms. I'd be more than happy to give you a place to stay until you're of age. Speaking of which, in the wizarding world one comes of age at seventeen. No doubt you'll get a letter from Hogwarts sometime soon—that's the witch and wizarding school here in Britain. Term is about to start." Mary said.

"Oh, thank you so much! I can't tell you how much this means to me!" Jeanne beamed, holding back a squeal of delight.

"No problem! I'd be more than happy to let you stay!"

As they arrived at Mary's house, Vires fluttered back on Jeanne's shoulder.

"Wow, this has been a day of destiny, hasn't it?" Mary laughed. She pulled out a little key and invited them in. Jeanne's face erupted into a large smile; the house was so big! At least, in her opinion; she grew up in a much, much smaller house. The stairs to the left of the short entrance hall faded up to even more of the house. It was very well furnished. The sofas and chairs were very homely, and Mary led her to the kitchen, with the little dining room next to it, then to Mary's bedroom, which was downstairs. Her room was that of an artist (of sorts). She had loose papers half written on all over the place. There was a cluttered bookshelf, also with several papers sticking out oddly between the books. A desk with quills, pens, papers, journals, books; everything Mary would ever need to write a thousand-page novel. A laptop also sat open on her desk. Obviously, she had a touch of modernism in her; that is, using so many muggle things.

Mary eventually led Jeanne upstairs and offered her a room.

She barely got, "I hope this'll do," out of her mouth before Jeanne had leapt onto the bed and lay with her face and stomach smothered in the soft quilt. Vires flew away before he was squashed beneath her, no matter how small she was, and perched himself on the dresser.

"Oh-my-god-this-room-is-so-cool!" She let the words come out in one simultaneous second. Jeanne began to laugh maliciously to herself. "I'll have _no_ problem making myself at home here. Hee-hee-hee."

Over the next couple of weeks, Jeanne seemed to have known Mary forever, and lived in her house for years. Indeed, she had set up little trinkets in her room, which entertained herself endlessly. An old, silver and black box that she used as a sort of enchanted, super computer to play the several games she had smuggled from her world. And just to "keep in shape", as she told Mary, she even had a little DDR mat that she sometimes impressed Mary with a song or two. Every now and then they'd play a game together.

Jeanne had several instruments stuffed behind and under her bed, as she liked to keep up with the music she used to practice growing up. She had a guitar, less played than her violin or keyboard, and even less so than the percussion instruments she conjured up all the time. Jeanne drummed on everything, everywhere. She had a collection of sticks and mallets clumped lazily beside her bed (because she used them so often). Her favorite by far were the drum set that she was careful to bang on with a sound barrier around her room to keep the noise down, and her beloved marimba.

They often inspired each other, Mary always intrigued to hear and share stories they had both made up or written. Even as an animator, Jeanne thought it was important to be a good storyteller to effectively make a good story through animation and movement. Jeanne had somewhat of a childish fascination with life, which might have been why she would make such a good animator; or maybe being an animator made her more respectful of life. She wasn't quite sure. On weekdays when Jeanne occupied herself with work or games in her room, Mary would work like a true writer, cooped up in her room downstairs, spitting out page after page of some new project.

Sure enough, as easily as it was predicted, an owl arrived with a parchment letter offering Jeanne to arrive at Hogwarts on September the first. At the last minute it seemed, Mary and Jeanne took a quirky visit to Diagon Alley. Mary helped Jeanne exchange some of her muggle income for wizard coins, and they wandered off to select the necessary supplies for school. The only thing they didn't have to get was a wand, for Jeanne produced the old one she had attained long before. They also didn't have to worry about getting a pet; Jeanne planned to smuggle Vires into Hogwarts, whether falcons were permitted there or not. He was at least a capable bird, was he not? However, they did stop by the owl shop to get pads for Jeanne's shoulders and arms because Vires perched on them so often. Even a girl that's been to so many different worlds and hardships gets a little weary with a wild falcon clawing into her frail, poorly cared for skin.

They packed all of her stuff in a "forth-dimension" trunk Jeanne pulled out (forth-dimension means it seems to never end and can fit so much you only need to use one suitcase—a quite handy item Jeanne had "picked up" in her journeys).

Jeanne had only wait a few more hours before she officially became a student at Hogwarts: school of witchcraft and wizardry.


	2. Hey Look! It's A Choo choo!

Jeanne has finally started her journey to Hogwarts, and it's a long, trialing one. Nobody seems to keen on talking to her, especially a dark boy by the name of Severus Snape. Although she weasles her way into sitting next to him on the train, it's a real task to get him to stop glaring at her!

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Chapter 2

Hey look! It's A Choo-choo!

Jeanne was very reluctant to wake up in the morning when Vires yanked on her bangs somewhat roughly after the first five minutes that she wouldn't get up. Jeanne had always had trouble going to sleep, staying up for several hours even after the lights were out; she just couldn't fall asleep. Her trunk was neatly stashed next to her bed and a little black backpack plopped on top of it.

Jeanne finally yanked her body out of its short-lived rest and stood up, wavering for a second or two from dizziness. Despite Vires only being a bird, Jeanne made him fly downstairs while she got dressed out of paranoia. She emerged some time later, curiously watching Mary rush about throwing a haphazard breakfast together. Jeanne wasn't the biggest fan of eggs and bacon, but she ate what she could and let Vires nibble on her second piece of bacon.

Both Mary and Jeanne were incredibly tired when they arrived at King's Cross Station in London. She supposed Mary had stayed up writing again. Mary offered to pull Jeanne's cart, but she refused.

Mary instinctively led her to Platform Nine and Ten, and the barrier between the two.

"Now, do you know how to get through?" Mary asked, as if expecting Jeanne already knew everything. But she was wrong.

"No…," Jeanne answered confused.

"Alright, well, this barrier is the portal to the Hogwarts platform. You just have to walk through it; but mind that muggles don't notice you. Take a little run at it if you have any nerves about it….I know it seems odd to run straight into a bunch of bricks!" she smiled kindly, and encouraged Jeanne to go first, assuring she would follow right after.

Jeanne's eyes shifted nervously, but she forced herself to go forward anyway. She often holds her breath in uncomfortable situations, and this was one of them. A few seconds later she finally released it while she gaped around at all the witches and wizards cluttered around her; she had entered Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. A couple of people walking by bumped her, and she nervously moved out of the way. Mary eventually came through the portal and joined Jeanne to drop off her luggage with everyone else's.

"Mum, stop telling me what to do!" Jeanne heard a boy scolding his mother, who scolded him right back. A good-looking boy with black hair was trying to escape his mother's ranting by losing himself in the crowd, but no matter how much he tried, she always caught up with him and continued to ramble; his trunk was probably slowing him down. He rolled his eyes disrespectfully and got on the train, away from her.

Jeanne stared passively at the scene, but secretly wondered how on earth she was ever going to make friends with people like that.

"You'll be fine," Mary's voice brought her mind back to earth. "You'll make tons of friends in no time." Mary escorted her little friend to the door of the train and gave her a sincere hug and smile before letting her go. "Have a good first term!" she waved as Jeanne timidly found her way around the students. In only a couple short moments the train began to move, and she wobbled despairingly as she looked for a compartment. This was only the second time she had ridden a train in her life, and the last time was when she was only two or three; too young to remember anything but the scary muffin man in the caboose (another story).

She peaked shyly into some of the other compartments, which were full of people laughing; all older than her. She made quiet little nervous noises to herself looking anxiously for an empty one she could commandeer. Vires flapped his wings, probably reacting to Jeanne's tension. She peaked into another compartment to her left with the door half open. Only a single little boy with greasy black hair was sitting with his arms folded as he stared moodily out the window. He already had his robes on. All in all, he was very unwelcoming and silent as the grave, but Jeanne would rather sit with him than those other busily chattering people.

"Excuse me," she said very softly and shyly. The boy broke his eyes away from the window and glared at her. "Uh, would it be okay if I sat here with you?" she asked nervously. "I promise I'll be quiet! I won't bother you at all!" she added hopefully with a weak smile. Well, she was trying the best she could!

The boy stared at her almost pathetic character (at the moment), and considered his reply for a minute.

"You better be," he said referring that she be quiet. He returned to leering out of the window.

"Thank you so much!" she said gratefully and closed the door behind her. She moved in carefully and stashed her backpack above her seat. She then plopped down opposite the boy and smiled at him for a moment. It caught his eyes eventually, and he looked at her like she was crazy. Then he spotted the falcon on her padded shoulder.

"I didn't know you had that with you," he sneered.

"Oh, you won't notice Vires at all. He's a good boy," she beamed and stroked his head.

"Why's he not in a cage?" the boy asked coldly.

"Because," she answered shortly, as if it didn't need explaining. "He doesn't need one; he behaves," she added slightly defensively. Nothing else was said for a while and the boy just stared at Vires disapprovingly.

"Wanna see him?" she asked kindly, letting Vires hop onto her arm and held him out. The boy sort of recoiled and looked at him oddly. Jeanne looked a little disappointed. "It's okay, he won't hurt you," she said to the boy.

"I don't care that it hurts me or not; why would you have a falcon anyway?"

"Well, I found him, that's why."

"You _found_ him?"

"Yeah," she said in a silly tone as if it were funny to repeat what she just said. The boy made a look at her again like she was crazy. "Are you sure you don't want to see him?" she offered more seriously this time.

"No thanks," he muttered and looked out the window again. Jeanne kept her promise and remained contentedly quiet, staring out the window like the boy. The sky was rather gray, and the hills looked very dreary racing past as the train carried on.

Sometime later in the afternoon a woman came by and broke their silence, which seemed to last for hours.

"Would you like anything from the trolley?" she asked kindly when she poked her head in the door. The boy only gave her a short glance and looked away, but Jeanne stood up and observed what the woman was offering. She was starving; she had felt her stomach starting to try and growl earlier, but she was trying with all her might to stop it, so she wouldn't disturb the boy. Jeanne poked at some of the snacks curiously and inevitably picked out a couple of pasties, frogs, cakes, and a box of beans. She yanked her wizard money out of her large red jacket pocket and handed it to the woman in return.

She re-entered the compartment, with one arm struggling to close the door and the other stuffed with snacks. Vires was quietly waiting for her to return on the seat next to where she was sitting, and Jeanne plopped back down. She curled her legs underneath her floofy skirt and sifted through her snacks in her lap. She opened a pasty and set it in front of Vires.

She looked down at it all in her lap, then back up at him. "You know," she laughed, "I can't eat all of these on my own! Do you want one? I'd be more than happy to share with you! (Because I can't stuff these all in my tiny stomach…)" she smiled and held out a cake for him. He just looked at her silently again. "Uh, what's your name?" she inquired.

"Snape, Severus Snape," he muttered.

"Severus!" Jeanne gasped. "I love that name so much! That's an awesome name! Much better than my name," she rolled her eyes. He stared at her like she really _was_ crazy.

"What is your name?" he asked almost curiously.

"Jeanne…Reno," she answered meekly. Severus gave a short laugh.

"What kind of a name is that?" he sneered.

"Uh…but…," she stuttered. "It's American, okay! I'm sorry for being American!" she shouted playfully whining, but couldn't hold back her smile or stifle her laugh.

"American?" he echoed. "Aren't you a little far from home then?" Jeanne took a startled second to reply.

"Uh, well, yeah, I guess I am. I live here now with my friend…uh, friend of my parents. My…parents used to travel a lot…," she threw together quickly. She was in the process of fine tuning specific details to lie about.

"Where are your parents now?" he asked, again sounding curious.

"…Dead." He didn't say anything after that, and looked quite seriously depressed—more so than Jeanne _should_ be, having "dead" parents.

"Are you alright?" she asked softly, hoping she didn't upset him. She second thought lying about her parents dying incase someone's parents really were dead. She was afraid that his were…but she didn't ask. "Here, have one," she held out the cake again with a sweet smile. He took it, even though his face half said he didn't want to, but then looked out the window as he picked at it. She opened her own little pasty and nibbled at it for a second.

"I've never had these before…. It tastes funny," she observed it peculiarly.

"You're a mudblood then," Severus muttered without looking at her.

"What?" Jeanne said.

"A mudblood," he glared at her. "It means"

"I know what it means!" she scowled. "Don't call me that," she said quietly and slightly dangerously. "I can't help what my parents aren't; it has nothing to do with me. Please don't say stuff like that, okay?" she asked nicely. Severus didn't say anything. "What about you? I suppose you're a pure-blood." Severus remained silent, avoiding her face. "Are you not?" she asked curiously.

"Don't talk to me!" he shouted defensively.

"Okay! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you," Jeanne said quickly, trying to make him understand she really was sorry. "I…so…one of your parents is a…muggle?" she asked carefully.

"How do you know about all our terms," he asked, slithering out of answering.

"Uh…my friend; my parent's friend I mean, is a witch."

"How did you find out? Did _she_ tell you? And your parents knew, too?"

"Well, yeah," she lied and shifted her eyes.

"She associates with muggles," Severus muttered, not noticing her wavering tone or expression; he wasn't looking at her, as if she were exceptionally ugly. "She wasn't supposed to tell you. What, did you're family promise to keep it a secret and use her for her magic?" he sneered, looking out the window.

"Uh…," she never answered. She knew her story was falling apart, but he didn't seem to notice or care. He obviously had his mind set about her now. "I'm sorry…."

"About what?" he gave her an odd look.

"That…I'm a muggle…and you hate me," she said somewhat sadly. What she really meant was she didn't want him to hold it against her for her parents being muggles, but she often used the wrong words; simple and naïve words. "Are you really that upset that one of your parents is a muggle?"

"I hate them!" he shouted out the window, folding his arms and scowling.

"You hate both of them? Why?"

"Because she had to marry that stupid…" he trailed off, obviously continuing a very violent argument in his head.

"Well, you look like a whole wizard to me…." He seemed to lighten up just a little bit. "You're lucky that you have at least _one_ magical parent."

"_Lucky!"_ he sneered sarcastically.

"Well, you got to grow up with all that magic and stuff…. I grew up wishing my heart out I could do magic. When I was little, I used to think I was a real witch and tried to do magic, but it never worked"

"_You_ tried to do magic?"

"Yeah," Jeanne giggled embarrassedly. "I have a _ton_ of stories about my crazy childhood! I was _insane!"_ Severus didn't have to say anything for Jeanne to know he strongly agreed.

"What all did you try to do?" he smirked, waiting for the dirt.

She went into a giggle fit and tried hard to calm down before she went into her story. "When I was little I wanted to fly so I became obsessed and determined to do it; even though my parents told me not to. I'd take the broom out of the kitchen," she smiled as she thought ahead, "And I climbed on the swing set in our backyard and leapt off of it over and over again mounted on a kitchen broom!" She started laughing so hard at her memory that Severus even laughed a little at how silly she was. "I was like, doing it everyday, and my dad tried to break me out of it, but I was just so stubborn. I just _really_ wanted to fly."

She continued to tell him about her odd childhood, how she had tried so hard to be a witch it was ridiculous. It actually entertained Severus, and a few times made him laugh, which Jeanne truly thought was sincere instead of mocking like before. They fell silent after a while and Jeanne stared so passively out the window, she almost looked depressed despite that she had just been laughing.

Then Jeanne jumped up so fast onto her seat Vires jumped to the other seat next to Severus. She started rummaging through her little sack and pulled out a sort of black binder with a long strap.

Severus watched her sit down and open it up, revealing clutters of papers half scribbled on and some filled with color all the way to the edges. She pulled out a particular picture on top she had started when Mary and her first arrived at King's Cross. It was just the penciled drawing of a girl so far, drawn so lightly Severus couldn't see it properly. Jeanne pulled out a little black pen and started perfecting her lines in ink.

"What's that?" he asked.

"It's a girl," Jeanne said as if anyone could tell. "I started it earlier." She continued to ink over her rough lines, and had most of it done twenty minutes later. Severus took glances at her progress from time to time, and stared at Vires, still sitting next to him; Jeanne had sprawled out across the entire seat on her stomach, hanging her head no more than an inch or two over the paper. When she finished and started searching in her bag for something else, Severus leaned over and looked at it.

"Here, you can see it," Jeanne said, lifting her head up out of her bag on the ground and handing it to him. "I know she looks odd, but I saw the picture somewhere and thought it was cool…. I'm just playing with it right now. I liked her costume; the colors are pretty neat, too. I'm just practicing," she explained as she finally pulled her head and arms back up, bringing a handful of different sized markers with her.

"_This_ is _practice?"_

"Yeah, practice," she grinned and rolled her eyes. "May I have it back? I need to start coloring it." Severus took it away from his face and handed it back to her. Jeanne sprawled out again and opened one of her smallest markers. She went on for a minute coloring part of the girl's face, but then twirled the marker around with her fingers. As she began to color again, a different color was coming out.

"What is that?" Severus asked, giving a puzzled look at the marker.

"It's enchanted…never runs out of ink and can change colors at the will of the user."

"Where'd you get it? Your friend?"

Jeanne paused for a moment. "Yeah," she said slowly.

They never said anything to each other for the rest of the voyage. She continued to busily color her picture, and had most of the girl finished a couple hours later. When it had gotten very late and dark outside, Jeanne's head plopped down on her arm, and fell asleep instantly over her picture; it's a surprise she didn't mess it up. She was still dead tired from loosing so much sleep the night before; and she gets really bored and tired when she draws for a long time. Severus looked over once to check on her progress and found her dead asleep, breathing so softly and shallow you couldn't hear her.

When the train stopped, Severus got up and left without saying anything to her or waking her up. Vires flew over a moment later and nipped at her ear; it was an odd feeling, since she had a cartilage piercing in that ear, and he was nipping straight at it. Jeanne woke up from it and abruptly put her hand to her ear instinctively, afraid it was hurt. She saw that it wasn't and Vires was just trying to wake her up.

"You silly bird," she giggled and sat up. It took her a moment to realize the train was stopped, Severus was gone, and she wasn't even in her robes yet. The door was open and students were still going by. She threw her pictures back in her portfolio and started to get her stuff ready to go; she didn't hear the announcement to leave her luggage. Luckily, Vires did and prevented her from finishing; she figured it out. She jumped up on her seat and pulled out her black robes from her backpack; they were very wrinkled, even though she had tried to fold them neatly in her bag. She closed the door quickly and threw them on anyway, and a second later she swung the door open again and swiftly joined the crowd. How inconspicuous.

She jumped off the train and really didn't know what to do next. She shuffled around, nervously and looked for someone to talk to. Suddenly, her confusion began to be answered as a booming voice broke through the crowd.

"Firs' years! Firs' years, over here!" Jeanne looked over the crowd and saw a lantern not far from her where the voice was coming from. She pushed her way carefully through the cluttered students, careful of Vires getting knocked around.

Vires nipped at her bangs as he was perched on her shoulder again.

"What is it now?" she asked, a little bothered by his constant nipping. She was still a little grumpy from waking up. She bumped into the figure holding the lantern. Utterly confused, she looked up into the darkness. The bushy face of a gigantic man, illuminated by the lantern beamed down at her.

"Oh! Watch yer step!" he chuckled. She gaped up at him, but didn't mean to. She caught herself, embarrassed, and looked around at the other first years. His lantern only lit up a few of the cold and shivering peers next to her. One particular pathetic looking boy had mousy brown hair and the combined shivering from the cold and shaking from nerves made him look like he was going to pass out.

"Follow me!" the giant called out and began taking enormous strides into the dark. The little first year students followed him meekly. Trotting through what Jeanne thought was a wood, she looked up at the giant.

"Who are you?" she squeaked quietly. He looked down surprised and saw her trotting along beside him.

"Oh! The name's Hagrid!" he grinned proudly. "I'm the gamekeeper here at Hogwarts. So what's yer name?" he asked politely with a large smile.

"Jeanne," she said weakly.

"Well, Jeanne, yeh'll like it here at Hogwarts!"

They came around a corner and saw the gigantic castle across what looked like a big, black lake. As instructed by Hagrid, Jeanne and three other people hopped into a little boat. Two shivering girls climbed in with her, and the mousy haired boy stumbled in clumsily. Jeanne just hung her arm over the edge of the boat as she laid herself down on the side. The two girls chattered quietly under their breath to each other; the boy looking around anxiously. She almost fell asleep again as they crossed the lake, but she jumped up when they arrived in a sort of stone, underground harbor. The boy was nervously prodding her shoulder. She clambered out of the boat, whispering a kind thanks to him, and followed the crowd to the grassy front of Hogwarts castle.


	3. Home Is Where the Heart Is

Chapter 3

Home Is Where the Heart Is

* * *

Who knows what's going to happen now. Jeanne is faced with being put into a house--whatever that is. What the heck is she supposed to do? And what house will she be put in? It's only the first step to being in a place where she really belongs. Bet you can't guess where!

* * *

Jeanne stood in a crammed room with all of the first years; the hiss of their loud whispers seemed distant from her wandering mind. Staring mindlessly at the ceiling and walls, she caught a glimpse of some of the students around her. She spotted the boy who had argued with his mother at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters; he was talking to another boy with dark, unkempt hair and glasses; the mousy haired boy hovering around them. She felt quite alone since Vires had flown away when they arrived at the castle doors. She couldn't help but wander over to them, however, nervously. The boy she had seen at the station spotted her walking over.

"Hey, what house do you think you'll be in?" he asked.

"I don't know…," she answered, shifty-eyed. What was she supposed to say?

"Most of my family's been in Slytherin, but I hope I'm not," he said.

"I hope I'm not in Slytherin, either!" the mousy haired boy squeaked. The boy from the platform glanced at the meek little boy with an odd sort of look. The little boy looked back at him hopelessly.

"I'm not sure what house I'll be in either," the boy with glasses said. "But I wouldn't fancy being in Slytherin; that's the house…you-know-who's from."

"What?" Jeanne queried.

"She's probably a muggle born," said the pompous boy.

"What's your name?" the boy with glasses asked her.

"Jeanne…," she answered quietly.

"I'm James Potter," he replied enthusiastically.

"I'm Peter…Pettigrew!" the mousy boy squeaked. Again, the pompous boy eyed him oddly.

"I'm Sirius Black," the last boy said flatly, not looking at her. "You'd do best to stay out of my way," he added.

"Excuse me!" Jeanne said sternly before she remembered she was so shy at the moment she could hardly speak. "Aren't we in the same class?" Her boldness evaporated when she saw them staring at her; she stared back wide eyed, and unintentionally naïve. "What!" she squeaked hastily. Sirius just gave a little barking laugh at her; the others laughing lightly with him.

Sirius started talking with James again, not including Peter and her. Jeanne shuffled her feet nervously, not saying anything; just listening. She didn't feel very comfortable, especially with Sirius.

"Line up!" a sharp voice cut through their conversation. The woman McGonagall that had previously led them to that room had returned. "Hurry up!" she snapped hastily. Jeanne scuttled into line, but was separated from Sirius, James, and Peter, because a few of the other students shoved into line fearfully. She was glad though. A girl with fluffy blonde hair tiptoed into place behind her, and waved a cheerful, silent "hi" to her that made Jeanne smile. The first _friendly_ person she'd seen so far.

They all marched into the Great Hall together where the older students stared at them, making the less confident first years fidget anxiously. McGonagall set a three legged stool down in front of them, and placed a disgusting looking hat on top of it, which started singing a moment later.

"Maybe we have to recite _poetry,_" Jeanne hissed under her breath when it had finished; the girl next to her giggled. "I'd eat myself, too if I had to sing in verse like that!" The girl tried to stifle a slightly louder laugh; Jeanne smiled at her.

"When I call your name, you will sit on the stool and put on the hat," said McGonagall abruptly. "Alva, Christina." The girl that was called hobbled out of line and took a seat with the enormous hat over her eyes.

"RAVENCLAW!" the hat shouted after a second. The teachers behind them, along with the rest of the hall applauded; the Ravenclaw table cheered loudly as they accepted her.

"Black, Sirius!"

Sirius walked slightly arrogantly, and almost looked bored when he sat down with the large hat over his beautiful, _undeserving_, eyes, Jeanne thought.

"GRYFFINDOR!" The proud Gryffindor table cheered and hooted as the slightly snobby Sirius took a seat.

"Evans, Lily." A pretty girl, in Jeanne's opinion, stepped forward and put the hat on.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat shouted again. She too joined her table. Names continued to be called, and the girl next to her suddenly stepped forward to,

"Gaskell, Loreli."

She hopped gaily forward and scooped the hat onto her head.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" The Hufflepuff table erupted as their first new member skipped gleefully over to them. More people were called and between each of these:

"Lupin, Remus." A fairly lanky, almost sickly looking boy walked hesitantly up to the hat and sat quietly as he was sorted.

"GRYFFINDOR!" Remus walked over to Sirius' table, but sat shyly a few seats away, curiously watching the next ones to be sorted.

"Pettigrew, Peter."

"GRYFFINDOR!" Peter scurried off to sit next to Sirius, who ignored him magnificently.

"Potter, James."

"GRYFFINDOR!" James then joined Sirius, who accepted him heartily; Peter squealing with delight on Sirius' other side. With all of the new additions to Gryffindor, the older students at the table exploded with proud screams and shouts.

"Reno, Jeanne!" It was finally her turn. Shifty-eyed, paranoid, and positively falling apart on the inside, she sat on the stool knock-kneed and pigeon-toed with the dark hat falling over her face.

"Let's see now," the little voice whispered in her ear. "Wait a second…I cannot see everything clearly. Parts of your mind are closed up." Jeanne began to worry.

"Please, please don't kick me out! Don't tell anybody!" she begged in her mind.

"Tell them what?"

"That…," Jeanne knew if she just showed him she wouldn't need to explain at all, but there was quite a lot she'd rather keep to herself. She held her breath as she let go of the memories she kept hidden in her head, watching the pictures and hearing the voices going by quickly like a slideshow in her mind. Some of them made her want to laugh nostalgically, while others she fought to keep tears from rolling out of her eyes. It was getting very hard to keep her breath held, but she didn't want to risk letting out a sob.

"…" the hat saw her memories, her thoughts just as she could, and remained silent for a second. "So much is in your head!" he finally said (didn't mean to rhyme, sorry!). "You travel to different worlds, do you? Well, I am honored that you have visited here! I will sort you into a house without a problem; it seems you have a fairly vicious side that overcomes you from time to time…."

"Oh, my god! Not Slytherin, not Slytherin!" she thought rapidly.

"No," it said. "I don't think that's quite the place for you. I think you would best fit in"

"HUFFLEPUFF!" the hat shouted aloud. The hall applauded for her, and Jeanne didn't even take the hat off her head before she shot up and gave a loud "Woo!" that was so shrill and earsplitting, that a lot of the people stopped clapping, although the Hufflepuffs laughed cheerfully. Jeanne put the hat down, exhaling largely and stroking back her hair melodramatically, pretending nothing had just happened, and she pranced over to the Hufflepuffs, taking a seat next to Loreli.

"Snape, Severus." Her friend walked sulkily up to the hat and put it on. It wasn't long before the hat spit out,

"SLYTHERIN!" Severus walked over to the loudly cheering Slytherin table and took a seat. Jeanne felt very far from her friend now.

"Trauterman, Wendel." A very perky looking boy with sandy colored hair skipped lively forth and placed the hat on his head, a large grin on his face.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" Jeanne and Loreli clapped loudly as Wendel walked over to sit with them. Not many were left, and finally the last student was placed in Slytherin. Then the man at the center of the teacher's table stood up and smiled at them all.

"I welcome you all back to another year, and a warm welcome to our new students. By the look on all of your faces, you are dying to eat and go straight to sleep, so I invite you happily to do so," he said with a chuckle and sat down himself.

"But…there's no food," Jeanne said slowly with a peculiar look at her empty golden plate.

"Of course there is!" said the boy across from her, and sure enough he began filling his plate with food that literally came out of nowhere.

"Did…I blink and miss something?" Jeanne stared around suspiciously.

"Probably!" the boy said cheerfully, and stuffed a chicken leg in his mouth. (Kentucky Fried…giggle)

Jeanne stayed silent throughout their meal, and just listened to Loreli and Wendel's conversation. She picked at her food, not having much interest in it, and felt herself drifting away dreamily, wishing she could go back to sleep. After the first meal had disappeared and deserts came in their place Jeanne had three helpings of pudding, probably more than she actually ate for her meal she pushed her plate to the side and laid her forehead lazily down on the table.

"Are you alright?" Loreli asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I'm just" Jeanne couldn't hold back her large yawn, but then added, obviously, "Tired."

"Well, you're in luck. The food's just disappeared. The feast is over," Wendel said glumly. Jeanne picked her head up and looked around, dazed as she was. She noticed the hall had gone silent and stared up at the teacher's table. She saw the man, who she discovered by eavesdropping on Loreli and Wendel was Dumbledore, stood up and smiled kindly at everyone again.

"Just before we head off to sleep in our own respective dream-worlds," he grinned dreamily himself, "I would like to reassure you, with the gloom of current events and you-know-who at large, that you will all be safe and sound within these walls. You cannot be harmed here, but I would like to notify the new years that the forest is off limits.

"I would also like to say good luck to you all, and goodnight!" He concluded his speech and everyone wandered out of the hall sleepily.

It seemed like forever getting to the Hufflepuff's common room. The boy that had sat across from Jeanne at the feast, Wolfgang, was the prefect leading them all down a staircase and into a long corridor. Along it there were lines of suits of armor, but one at the very end of the row was distinctively different. Other than being almost twice as big as the rest, it also had very intricate designs, and a large feathered helmet, which quite reminded Jeanne of a Roman soldier's hat. Wolfgang stopped in front of it and, as if it saw him, it lowered its vizor.

"Password?" came an echoing voice through its hollow armor.

"Purple Snout," said Wolfgang and without warning, the suit of armor marched aside, revealing a square hole in the wall Jeanne was sure wasn't there before. They all clambered inside a lofty white chamber; an artistically architechtured fireplace, a lot like the suit of armor's designs, illuminated the room delicately, and soft furniture positioned around the room. Two staircases creatively curved toward each other, but never meeting led up to the dorms for boys and girls respectively. Jeanne and Loreli dragged themselves upstairs to the girl's first year dorm with their two other companions. They crawled into their beds, as their trunks were set in front of one already. One of the other girls was one that had ridden in the boat with Jeanne to the castle; her friend she had been whispering to had been placed in Ravenclaw.

Jeanne slipped out of her clothes and removed her jewelry, feeling a little uncomfortable, even though they were all girls, and slipped into some soft red pajama pants and top. She plopped backward into her bed lethargically, pulled shut the yellow curtains, cuddled under her heavy quilt and fell fast asleep; she never heard Loreli say goodnight.


	4. Ovoiding the Omnipresent Stalker 101

Try starting off the day with someone bouncing on your stomach! That's how Jeanne woke up on her first day of school, and late for class. Not the best of starts. First impressions are important, right? Jeanne discovers that that's a very important factor for her in the magical world. But every time she meets up with Severus again is like a first meeting; she has to work back up to his good side each newtime. Being in seperate houses makes it even worse, and Severus' attitude toward her still isn't the friendliest (far from friendly if anything). However, she makes a bitbetter start with James and the group...

* * *

Chapter Four

Avoiding the Omnipresent Stalker 101

The next couple of days seemed like a few months had already been spent at school. Jeanne awoke the first morning with Loreli bouncing on her bed.

"Wakey, wakey, eggs and bacy!" she squealed. Jeanne's eyes popped open, as if they'd just been nooked by an A-bomb. Loreli had pulled back her curtains wide so light erupted onto Jeanne's face. "Come on, get up! It's the first day of school!" Loreli leapt off the bed and whirled around as her black robes twisted with her.

"What time is it?" Jeanne asked groggily.

"It's almost nine o'clock!" she grinned. "Get up, get up! Get dressed, we have to go!"

Jeanne jumped out of bed realizing she would be late for class. She was grateful Loreli had come back from breakfast to wake her, as she was risking her own tardiness. She threw on her robes and didn't mind her jewelry; except for her ring.

"What about breakfast?" Jeanne asked hastily.

"No time for that!" Loreli shouted and stuffed a piece of toast in Jeanne's mouth she had smuggled back from the Great Hall. Loreli grabbed Jeanne's arm and tore off downstairs; Jeanne resisted only long enough to grab her books.

Jeanne didn't even know the schedule, as she missed breakfast when it was handed out by their Head of House, Professor Sprout. Loreli obviously knew though, because she was dragging Jeanne all over the castle. Or was she? She was bouncing off the walls, which made Jeanne wonder what she could have _possibly_ eaten for breakfast (and if she herself would be able to eat some and have that much energy by the next day). After the first five minutes when Loreli marched them through the third floor corridor twice, Jeanne was certain Loreli did _not_ know where she was taking them.

"Sorry to be a back seat driver, but we're no closer to getting to class as we are to the center of the earth!" Jeanne shouted rather frustrated. She realized she sounded a little mean and apologized.

"No, it's alright," Loreli waved her hand, although she was distracted by looking around the hall. "Come on! I think Charms is this way!" she said now. By sheer luck it seemed, Loreli brought them past the Charms room, and almost forged on until she spotted Wendel out of the corner of her eye, waving at them from inside the room.

Loreli tried her best to scurry in unnoticed, but as she dropped her books down on the desk carelessly, they were both caught, and five points were deducted from Hufflepuff. Loreli pouted for half the lesson.

History of Magic was more or less a fight in Jeanne's mind on the worst or best class. On one hand, Professor Binns was _so_ incredibly uneventful, she would rather leap out of the window and go sky diving— until the abrupt stop; but on the other hand, he drawled on so carelessly you could get away with just about anything you wanted. She spent the class doodling in her new book, since Loreli had pulled her out of the dorm so fast she didn't have time to smuggle her portfolio. She had most of the front page decorated to an insane degree, which was titled _A History of Magic;_ how original. She added in curly little words beneath it _AKA: Pointless Wizard Trivia: Version 1.2768550…._

Herbology went on a little better, although Jeanne whined about getting dirt under her fingernails from messing with the plants. Professor Sprout scolded her for making such a fuss out of it; it was indeed a fuss as Jeanne screeched in a voice so high pitched the Professor compared her to a mandragora. It was that class however that she was able to see Severus, but she didn't say anything to him, and he never acknowledged her either. He must have thought she was stupid after all her squealing, she thought.

She soon discovered that Professor McGonagall would be one of her toughest obstacles in terms of teachers. Jeanne was entirely what McGonagall was not in personality. Jokes and comments in odd places fell _absolutely_ flat with her. She wasn't even able to get away with drawing in her class, and she lost Hufflepuff several points every time she was caught. She resisted with all her might from scribbling in her Transfiguration book, even when McGonagall was turned around; Jeanne became paranoid McGonagall could see behind her…. Jeanne did a lot of other things that seemed to push McGonagall's buttons; little squeals, high-pitched giggling in odd places, soft, but obnoxious humming, attempted random whistling, finger drumming, shaking her leg spastically so much that her desk thumped and tickling her own face distractedly with her quill; those were only the first few. She didn't realize how fidgety she was until she was brought under McGonagall's strict and flawless character. If she wanted to make it to twelve, (which her birthday was coming up in October) she would have to learn to control and contain herself around McGonagall.

Then there was the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Montague. Tall, slender, pale, and almost prissy looking, but still held the strong air of someone you didn't want to mess with. Jeanne didn't have a problem paying attention in that class, since the she found the subject interesting, but Montague was hard to put up with. He was very snobbish to the Hufflepuff class, and seemed to have a great distaste for particular students, including Jeanne. Despite this, she admired and respected him for his knowledge of the Dark Arts; she just hated his attitude. She enjoyed herself most of the time, unless he was picking on her spell work or loss of attention.

* * *

The week finally blurred into Friday afternoon, which she spent outside. Jeanne flopped down next to the edge of the lake, practicing her whistling. It seemed like everyone could whistle except her, but she insisted that she could learn. Actually, she was trying to call Vires, but her attempt failed. She sat alone, hopelessly blowing air when she spotted Severus walking across the lawn, his face buried in a book. She quickly forgot her whistling session and pranced over to him, her face lit up brightly.

"Hi!" she said when she caught up with him. He looked up from his book, but didn't say anything. "How are you? Did you have a good first week?" she smiled.

"Why's it any of your business?" he said coldly.

"I just wanted to know. Did you do well?" She began to giggle. "I had a lot of trouble with Professor McGonagall"

"Yes; I didn't take to her any more than I did the other professors," he said bluntly.

"It's not that I didn't like her, but I was too," she paused, searching for a word that would fit, "Colorful?"

"No, I think _wretchedly infantile _befits you best," he sneered.

"Hey, that's not very nice!" she snickered humorously. "What about you? You don't exactly have the most outstanding charisma!" Jeanne said jokingly; she didn't mean to be cold, but he scowled at her and stormed off.

"Wait!" she called out to him. She took hold of his arm, but he yanked it away and took larger strides. "Severus!" She grabbed his arm again, firmly, and tried to turn him around to face her. Severus whirled around on his own, whipping his wand out of his pocket and pointing it in her face.

"Get away from me!" he hissed dangerously.

"Severus," Jeanne said very quietly. "I'm sorry…. I really didn't mean to hurt you. It was a stupid thing of me to say to you. You're my friend; I really am sorry," she looked at the ground sadly, knowing he wasn't going to be forgiving.

"I'm not your friend," he said coldly, and stalked off; this time she didn't follow him.

* * *

That evening she hung upside down over the sofa in the common room, transfixed with the fire. This wasn't the smartest idea, because when she looked over at Loreli, her eyes burned so bad she startled squealing.

"Ahh! Oh my freaking god, my eyes burn!"

"'Freaking'" Loreli repeated, giggling. "That's a funny thing to say."

"Why?" Jeanne looked at her oddly, still upside down.

"Well, it just is. Don't they say that in America?" Loreli asked.

"Yeah…. What do you say here?"

"I don't know; just stuff like 'bloody' or 'bleeding'. So you're originally from America? How long did you live there?"

"Technically, I grew up there, but I have been all over," Jeanne said, flipping around.

"That's cool," Loreli smiled. "My mother's family was French; my father met her after he finished wizarding school."

"Is your mother a muggle?" Jeanne asked curiously.

"Yeah, she's real nice. Mom says dad was head over heals for her, but was really shy when he proposed to her. She finally just asked him if he was trying to marry her," she twittered.

"That's sweet," Jeanne smiled dreamily.

"My parents are both magic," Wendel said, looking up from his charms homework.

"You're lucky," Jeanne said.

"Why? It's nothing that special. I mean, all that really matters is the parents themselves. In the end the only thing that counts is how your parents love you; not the magic," Loreli said. "That's what my mom told me when I used to wish she was a witch."

"That's a good way to put it," Wendel said. "Magic is cool and all, but I'd still love my parents no matter what. What about you, Jeanne? Your parents were muggles, right? Did you get along well with them?"

"Yeah," Jeanne said slowly. "But can we not talk about it? I mean, I love my parents to death, but it's just in the past and that's the only place it can be." Really, she just didn't want to make up a bunch of lies to her friends anymore than she had already, so she pretended like she just didn't want to talk about her "dead" parents.

Sleeping that night was hard; even though she was tired, she remained staring up at the canopy she couldn't quite see in the pitch darkness. Her imagination was running away with her, already beginning to slightly colorize the memories of the past week.

Sometimes she thought of things she could have said or done differently (one of which would be less annoying in Transfiguration; she felt like apologizing to McGonagall). She thought secretly to herself about a make believe conversation with Severus if she had been confident enough to talk to him in one of her classes. She smiled and almost giggled, but remembered there were others in the room, even if they were all asleep.

A sick feeling shot into her stomach when she remembered what she had said to Severus earlier. She thought if she had just said something a little different; a little more to try and apologize to him. She felt herself slipping away miserably, but before drifting off tried to put a plan together to apologize again then next time she saw him. She constantly reminded herself of particular experiences with other people in her life; she reminded herself not to follow him, or bother him too much…she didn't want him to hate her like the others. Not again.

* * *

"Miss Reno, please pay attention!" Professor Slughorn snapped her out of a very thrilling image of herself on a broomstick. She was scribbling dreamily on her parchment a picture of a girl flying.

The Slytherins sniggered curtly around the dungeon room; Loreli glared at them. Professor Slughorn only calmed them down casually and continued his examination around the room.

In Jeanne's opinion, Slughorn picked favorites too often, and in a very arrogant manner; just the kind of teacher she didn't quite like, but still found ways to suck up to. He even had a little club set up with 'extraordinary' students, but of course, she was nowhere near that category to him. She was a mundane, fairly well behaved, meek little witch.

"Do you have any dried" Loreli began to ask Jeanne, but she handed over one of her roots abruptly without a word. "Is everything okay? You look upset."

"Oh," Jeanne's head snapped up and looked with her eyes half shut as if she were tired; she kinda was. "I…just have a lot on my mind," she drawled passively.

"You look a little too depressed to be thinking about our flying lessons tomorrow," Wendel said over his cauldron.

"Well, I was thinking about it—"

"Yeah, you were drawing a picture of it! It's cute— oh my god! Jeanne, watch your cauldron!" Loreli screeched. Jeanne had let her cauldron boil too long before she added her roots; Severus sneered at her across the room as he worked diligently over his potion. Jeanne gave a shrill squeak and tried to settle down her potion.

"So what were you so upset about?" Wendel queried.

"Oh, nothing," she looked shyly down at her cauldron.

"Well then, we need to cheer you up!" Wendel said briskly with a grin.

"Yeah! Aren't you looking forward to the lessons?" Loreli asked jovially.

"Of course!" Jeanne said with a bit of a grimace.

"Cheer up already! Everybody looks forward to flying!" Loreli chastised. "Whatever it is that's bothering you, you'll forget all about it when we get up in the air!"

Jeanne smirked shyly and went silently back to work on her potion.

After the bell rang to release them all from the damp dungeon room, (Jeanne complained about it bothering her allergies or messing up her hair from time to time) she gave a hasty bye to Loreli and Wendel and tried to catch up to Severus. He was heading up the marble staircase to Defense Against the Dark Arts with the Gryffindors. She reminded herself not to be bothersome and called out.

"Severus!" Jeanne scurried up the steps to get level with him; he only stopped and turned around briefly, scowling at her. "I really am sorry about last week. Are you going to be at the flying lessons tomorrow, though?" she asked trying to lighten up the tension.

"Go away," he said coldly and turned around.

"But! Wait, why are you so upset!"

"Why are you still following me!" he snarled. "I thought I wasn't very _charismatic?_"

"I didn't mean that! How many times do I have to apologize!" she shouted, frustrated.

"None! You don't even have to talk to me, so just go away!" he spat and turned away.

"Hey! It's that kid!" a voice called from below them. Severus had only taken a couple steps before he whirled back around when he heard the voice call out. He glared down as Sirius, James, Peter, and Remus walked up the stairs. Jeanne had seen them hanging together in some of her classes, but like Severus, had never talked to them. "What was your name again?" Sirius asked.

"I…I think it was Severus," Peter squeaked behind him.

"No, I thought it was _Snivellus._ Yes, that was it!" James smirked; Peter snickered noisily behind him.

"_Shut up!_" Severus hissed, his hand nearing his pocket.

"Uh! I don't think that's a very good idea!" James said, whipping out his own wand.

"Hey!" Jeanne cut in. "Cut it out and go away, will you?"

"No, we just wanna talk to ickle Snivelly," Sirius put on a wretched, baby-voice. He and James laughed and made a small advance upward, but Jeanne stepped in their way. She looked behind her briefly and found that Severus had already abandoned them all and walked up the stairs to class.

"Oh well, he's not that important anyway," James said disappointed.

"Let's just go to class," Remus said suddenly. Along with him, they all marched off together; Jeanne realizing she might as well run all the way to class before she was late—she had McGonagall next.

* * *

Jeanne had arrived safely to Transfiguration, but had a bit of explaining to do to her friends. They kept asking her who the boy was she kept trying to talk to; she ignored them, not only to keep out of answering, but also out of fear of McGonagall. Again, after class, Jeanne separated from her friends; but conveniently enough, Wendel headed for the library, and Loreli headed for the common room. Jeanne waved a cheerful goodbye and skipped off down toward the entrance hall.

Jeanne skipped very merrily down the marble staircase; a little _too_ merrily, because she forgot about the trick step, and as her foot landed on it, it sunk in and she flung forward with an extremely loud, high-pitched screech. Her books scattered along the steps, her face saved only by her arms instinctively catching her before it smacked the cold stone; her leg that wasn't stuck twisted very uncomfortably as she had tried to keep skipping when she got stuck; her stuck foot twisted oddly at the ankle. (I didn't think a leg could twist like that—good thing she's not a boy.)

"Ahh! Oh-my-god-what-the-heck!" she squealed; several people laughed at her, but passed on. "_What_ is the _point_ to these TRICK STAIRS!" Severus walked down the stairs from Defense Against the Dark Arts and passed by her.

"Severus! Hey, could you maybe help me?" she pleaded from her pathetic position on the ground. He skipped over the trick step and paused a couple steps below her, laughing. "Hey! Cut that out! Please help me up!" she squealed again. He just gave her a nasty smirk and walked on. "HEY! Come back here!" He ignored her and met a couple of sniggering Slytherins at the bottom of the staircase. "Bloody bast" she muttered under her breath.

"Would you like some help?" a voice asked kindly beside her. Jeanne twisted her head so that she could see the owner of the voice: Remus.

"Yes, please," she said meekly. He took hold of her arm and helped her up; she leaned on him reluctantly so she could untwist her leg and pull her stuck one out of the stair (she didn't want to be a burden on him).

"There you go," he smiled.

"Thank you so much," she beamed back.

"No problem. Your name's Jeanne, right?"

"Yeah," she confirmed weakly.

"Yeah; I remember seeing you in class. You seem awfully jaunty with your friends." Jeanne smirked, embarrassed. Sirius, James, and Peter strode down from the top of the staircase and met up with Remus.

"Hey, Remus, what're you doing?" Sirius asked looking at Jeanne.

"Oh, I was just helping her," he answered mildly. Jeanne realized all her books were still on the ground and started to pick them up. "Sirius," Remus continued, "This is—"

"I know," Sirius interrupted. "We met at the sorting." He didn't seem too enthusiastic as he looked down at her.

"Oh," Remus said.

"I've always seen you drawing in History of Magic," James said to her.

She giggled, a little embarrassed. "Yeah, but at least I can get away with it in that class. Charms and Potions are the only class I can get away with it sometimes; McGonagall hates it when I draw."

"Yeah, she's fairly demanding. Transfiguration is a very serious magic," Remus said. "What about Defense Against the Dark Arts? You can't draw in there while you're taking notes or something?"

"Well, yeah, I could, but I really like that class," Jeanne answered; Sirius gave a little barking laugh.

"So does Snivelly," he sneered.

"Yeah, he hangs over that book with his big nose attached to the pages," James laughed; Peter made a squeaky laugh beside him. "He's obsessed with the Dark arts, the nasty git," James frowned.

"That's not very nice. Why are you so mean to him?" Jeanne pouted.

"We're just messing with him! He's a little git anyway!" Sirius protested. James, Peter, and Remus laughed.

"Being in Slytherin's made him more of a prat," Jeanne frowned, looking at the ground. Sirius and James laughed at her again.

"He was put into Slytherin because he's _always_ been a prat; he fits well with them," Sirius said smugly. Jeanne opened her mouth to protest, but thought, on the other hand, he was sort of right.

"Whatever," James said suddenly. "Wanna head outside, Sirius?"

"Sure," he said.

"Hey…would it be alright if I…went with you," asked Jeanne nervously. Sirius stared at her, his eyebrows raised suspiciously.

"What not?" James shrugged. Jeanne's face erupted into her ear-to-ear grin, and she skipped along behind them; sometimes people just want to have a friend.


	5. Jumping Off the Swing Set

It's not everyday you get to hop on a broomstick and fly away. Well, maybe once a week, but not everyday. The first flying lessons have arrived, and possibly Jeanne's first real outlet from some of the other hectic subjects at school, andthat's coming from the girl that leapt off her swingset on a kitchen broom!

* * *

Chapter 5

Leaping Off the Swing Set

Jeanne walked along-side Loreli and Wendel after they were let out of Herbology Thursday afternoon. They headed toward the area they were instructed to meet with the Slytherins to begin their first flying lesson.

"Hey, I'll race you!" Loreli said eagerly.

"Save it for the broom," Wendel said, picking dirt and plant slime out of his prissy fingernails.

"But I'm just too _excited!_ I'm gonna beat you there!" she shouted decidedly, and ran off.

"Loreli! Wait up!" Jeanne screeched and followed after; Wendel reluctantly jogged after them.

"I told you to call me Lori!" she giggled when they reached the lines of brooms on the ground; some of the Slytherins that had left class before them had already arrived. "Loreli's too big for me; my momma always calls me Lori!" she fussed.

"Alright, alright, _Lori_!" Jeanne grinned, thinking of the image of Lori prancing around saying her name the first time she had insisted they call her Lori. ("Lori-dory, Lori-nory, Lori-bory! Wait a second…bory? I'm not boring…am I?")

"Jeez, Lori! Please tell me the secret that gives you so much energy!" Wendel panted when he caught up, leaning on his knees.

"Happiness!" she cried. "Love and Happiness!" The Slytherins sniggered at her, but she ignored them with a smile.

"I don't think my kind of love and happiness is the same as yours, Lori," Wendel frowned. Lori just shrugged.

"Come on, now! What are you all waiting for!" a voice broke out; Madam Hooch, their flying instructor strode briskly over to them. "Hurry up, kiddies! Next to a broomstick!" At her command, all of the little students hopped themselves next to a broom lying on the ground; Jeanne spotted Severus a little down the row across from her and her friends.

Jeanne stood somewhat pigeon-toed, wringing her fingers anxiously. She looked down at her messy little broom, then at her friends, at Madam Hooch, then back to her broom.

"Alright now. I want you all to stick out your hands over your broomstick and say 'up'! On the count of three, up!"

_Up! Up!_ Jeanne sang in her head delightedly, twisting her hips about and rocking her head childishly, a huge smile screwing up her face. The broom met her hand unexpectedly, and she squealed, her eyes nearly popped out.

"Did you even say anything?" Lori whispered beside her, fighting with her broom to make up its mind to come to her or stay on the ground.

"No…," Jeanne said, shifty-eyed. She dropped the broomstick carelessly back on the ground and said "Up!" weakly; it just flopped over. She lost her attention on her broom and saw several other students shouting at their own broomsticks. Severus, she noticed, took a few frustrated attempts until he got it in his hand. Wendel was one of the few that the broom obeyed immediately.

Madam Hooch paced up and down the rows, observing them, and Jeanne quickly scooped up her broom again, not bothering to say 'up'. Madam Hooch then instructed them on the proper way to mount their brooms, and corrected them accordingly as she continued her pacing.

Jeanne flung her leg so excitedly over her stick she gave a gentle little push from the ground before she remembered they weren't supposed take off yet, and at once fell back on the grass; her legs getting an unpleasant shock as she had them folded beneath her already in an attempt to fly.

Lori heard the little thud next to her.

"What are you doing? Get up" Lori began, but Madam Hooch walked over to them and spotted Jeanne on the ground.

"What in the heavens are you doing, child? Get up, let me see you mount your broomstick," she commanded. Jeanne got to her feet, but didn't bring her broom with her.

"Do I have to?" she whined. She heard people around her stifling laughs.

"Of course, don't be silly! That's what this class is for! Now say up!"

Jeanne looked hopelessly down at her broom, then back up at Madam Hooch.

"Up!" she squeaked; it just rolled over again.

"Oh, come on now! You can do better than that! Up!"

Jeanne took a moment to calm down and forget everyone was watching her, particularly Severus; she didn't want to make a fool of herself again. She took a deep breath and said "Up!" As soon as the broom hit her hand, she swung her leg over it simultaneously, and again kicked off lightly by instinct. She floated gently for a few seconds, but then jumped off when she saw the looks on the other students' faces. Shifty-eyed, she tried to hide her broomstick behind her back.

"Well, now, you mount that thing like a veteran! Do you have magic parents?" Madam Hooch asked her.

"No," Jeanne answered slowly; several Slytherins sneered at her.

"Well, it looks like you'll do just fine. Are you sure you haven't had any experience on a broomstick before?" Madam Hooch inquired.

"I'm sure; unless you count jumping off my swing set on a broom!" she smiled nervously. People around her laughed again, but this time she laughed at herself with them.

Madam Hooch screwed up her face, trying to hold back a smirk.

"A little oddball, you are," Madam Hooch chuckled. "Right then! Everyone mounted?" she called around and left Jeanne feeling a bit self-conscious.

"On the count of three, everyone push up hard from the ground, fly into the air a few feet, and then come back down, leaning forward slightly. Ready; one, two, three!"

Madam Hooch made a sharp blast with her whistle and everyone kicked off from the ground at odd intervals. Some of them swayed around hopelessly a foot from the ground, others shot up a little two high and freaked out, some of them just fell flat off. Wendel again, however was one of the few naturals…perhaps he had practice.

Jeanne swayed around carelessly, humming softly to herself; she forgot to come down. Lori gave Jeanne a little bump on her broom in midair, half just to play around, and half to get her attention back to come down. When their lesson ended, Jeanne joined her friends in the library.

Jeanne sat between Wendel and Lori, drawing another picture with her markers. She was drawing a more detailed and finished version of the girl flying she had drawn in Potions the day before. A group of giggling girls from Ravenclaw walked past.

"Merlin's beard!" one of them said suddenly. Her friends looked around at what she was staring at, and looked just as speechless as their friend looked.

"Whoa! Did you draw that!" one of the others asked. Jeanne and her friends turned around at them.

"Yeah," she answered mildly. _Why do people ask that when I'm sitting here drawing right in front of them? Is it that hard to believe? _she thought to herself.

"Wow," the girls said in amazement. "Could you draw me one of those?" one asked, wide-eyed at her picture.

Jeanne shifted her eyes nervously.

"Sure," she answered shyly. "But…it'll cost you…sorry," she added. She was very self-conscious about asking people for money, even for her art.

"Absolutely!" the girl smiled. "How much?"

"Uh, I don't know?" she said hesitantly. She didn't want to make it too high and scare her off. "Five sickles?" she answered.

"Five sickles!" the girl shouted astonished. "That's much too low!"

"Yeah!" another one of her friends said. "That's more like…a _galleon_ or two!"

"I'll give you three," the first girl said decidedly. Jeanne's mouth hung open as wide as her eyes had popped out...wow, that's wide.

"Okay…," Jeanne said timidly. She never thought anyone would offer up galleons for her work. "So, what do you want me to draw for you?"

The girl paused, taken aback.

"I haven't thought of that," she laughed. "What should I ask her to draw?" she asked quietly to her friends. They all started giving out ideas immediately.

"Get her to draw a unicorn!" one said.

"No! You should get a dragon!" another suggested.

"How 'bout a cute guy!" one giggled.

"I like the idea of a dragon!" the girl said.

"Ooh! Make her do a Swedish short-snout! Those are pretty!" one of them suggested again. Jeanne thought apprehensively to herself; _what was a Swedish short-snout?_

"Yeah! I'll get that!" the girl grinned happily. She turned back to Jeanne. "Could you draw me a Swedish short-snout?" she asked anxiously.

"Sure," Jeanne agreed, but still had no idea what one looked like.

"Oh my! Thank you so much!" the girl smiled; she made a happy squeal with her friends.

"Um, just for business purpose, I'll need your name; I'll have to find you when it's done," Jeanne asked; this was the stuff she could handle.

"Oh, my name's Caroline!" she smiled. "When do you think it'll be finished?"

"I'll get back to you in a week or so," Jeanne answered.

"Okay! Thank you so much!" Caroline said.

"No problem," Jeanne grinned, waving her hand.

"Well, I guess I'll see you soon!" Caroline said and waved goodbye as her and her friends walked off. Jeanne waved happily, but as soon as the girls had turned around, Jeanne looked at her friends in trepidation.

"What in the world is a Swedish short-snout," she said in a quiet, high-pitched voice. Lori smirked at her.

"It's a…," Wendel thought to himself, trying to think of a way to explain it. "Dragon?" he said uncertainly. "I don't know how to explain it. You could look up a picture here. I mean, we're in a _library._ They're bound to have a couple pictures on them." Jeanne nodded her head to the idea.

"I'm so happy for you!" Lori cut in, excitedly. "I can't believe someone actually asked to buy a picture, and for _three galleons! _You should do this as a job or something: getting requests from people for money! You'd be rich!" Lori grinned gleefully. Jeanne smiled back at her, appreciative of her kindness and support.

"I'm going to go look up that picture. See you guys later," Jeanne gathered her books and waved goodbye with her free hand.

Jeanne wandered up and down the shelves, having utterly no idea where she could find stuff about dragons. She supposed she'd look around the section with 'D's', since that's what dragon started with. It took her a while to find it, since the library was so much like a maze—at least to her. She finally found it and plopped her books and portfolio on the ground, wandering up and down the row and running her fingers along the books.

"Where the heck are _dragons_!" she hissed, frustrated. Many of the books were on Defense Against the Dark Arts, but she didn't need any of those. _Well, dragons might be something in a Defense Against the Dark Arts book_, she thought. She found one, and slipped it out, plopping down next to her stuff. Jeanne flipped the pages by quickly, like a flipbook, stopping at all the pictures that caught her eye. Nothing seemed to be about dragons yet, but she couldn't resist staring at the odd pictures and illustrations and reading their captions. Sometimes when she became intrigued with the caption or the picture she ended up reading a paragraph, or a page, or even a part of the chapter. She sat there for a long time, reading about things she didn't even need; she was the queen when it came to useless trivia and things she _didn't _need to know.

After a while, Severus walked over to that section, but Jeanne didn't look up from her book. He also passed her up and went straight for the bookcase. He ran his fingers over the books, but then paused for a minute. He finally turned around and stared down at Jeanne. She looked up timidly confused and made a little grin; he didn't smile back.

"Do you need something?" she asked weakly with a big smile.

"What book is that?" he asked flatly.

"Oh, sorry, did you need this?" she held it up so he could see the title on the binding. He stared at it, starving it seemed, but again didn't say anything to her. "You can have it. I'm not really using it. I was just looking for something, but I couldn't find it in here. Then again," she hugged the book to her chest lightly, "It is pretty interesting." She grinned big. "But like I said, I don't really need it. Here," Jeanne stood up and held it out to him. He took it from her hand and stared at her, as if suspicious of a trap.

"It's not like it's gonna eat you or anything," she said jokingly.

"What were you using it for?" he asked.

"Oh, I was looking for a dragon, but it didn't have any. I'll have to find another book."

"What do you need a book about _dragons_ for?"

"Well, I got a commission for one…. A Swedish short-snout," she said.

"A commission?" He obviously wasn't familiar with the term.

"It's a request; I'm gonna draw a picture for some money," she answered to his confusion. "Do you by chance know what a Swedish short-snout is?" she took a chance at asking, even though she was afraid he would tell her off. He stayed silent for a moment.

"A bit," he finally answered, to her amazement.

"Could you help me find one?" she asked eagerly.

"That's easy, I can't believe you couldn't get it yourself," he said. Severus turned back to the bookshelf and pulled out a brown leather book above them. He opened the book and began flipping pages. Finally he stopped on a detailed page with a large moving photo of what she supposed was a Swedish short-snout. "Here," he said and handed it to her.

"Thanks," she smiled, staring at the picture as the dragon gave a short blast of fire from its mouth. He didn't say anything to her thanks, but flipped open his own book and left with his face buried in it.


	6. The Halloween Baby

October has finally hit, along with the prospect of turning twelve years old. Holloween has always been Jeanne's favorite time of the year, but she better keep on her toes this time. The magical world has its own twists and surprises on Holloween night, including meeting a particularly nasty blond-haired, blue-eyed pureblood...

NOTE: I've posted two chapters this week partially because I really like this chapter, and I hope you do too, but also because I'm going to be very busy now that school is about to start. I regretfully tell you that I will only be able to post about once a month at the least. I really really am sorry, but I have to keep up with my work, but I promise to keep it going here on fanfiction! Please don't get bored and drop me! I really will do my best to keep you updated, so please stay posted for more! It only gets better (I hope). Thanks!

* * *

Chapter Six

The Halloween Baby

Jeanne was happy that it was finally October. She enjoyed that month the most not only because of the wonderful prospect of a chain of holidays attached to it, not only because you get to wear odd costumes on the 31st that you couldn't wear normally, and not only because of the fall, her favorite season; October was the month she was born, exactly two weeks before Halloween. She always enjoyed the idea of being older than most of the students in her class, having her birthday almost immediately after school began. But then again, she was very shy about her birthday. She loved turning another year older, but always had problems telling people about it. She didn't like people making a big deal out of it, but she didn't like not being noticed either. Jeanne never makes sense with her emotions.

The only people she had yet told about her upcoming birthday were Lori and Wendel. They were happy for her, but more confused when she told them not to tell anyone else about it.

The first week of October drew on, but Jeanne remained her "normal" self. She spent History of Magic drawing on her commission; the book Severus had helped her find lay open next to her. It was taking her much longer than she expected because she was so intent on fitting in all the detail.

"Hey," James leaned over the row to whisper to Jeanne. "What're you drawing?" he asked curiously.

"I'm doing a commission for a girl. She asked me to draw this dragon," Jeanne whispered back. She pointed to the moving picture in the book.

"Neat; a Swedish short-snout," James smirked. Peter eavesdropped on them and leaned over excitedly to get a glimpse of Jeanne's artwork; he was sitting behind her.

"Yeah, I really like it. But it was incredibly hard to draw from this moving target!" Jeanne hissed under her breath. "It moves so much! I wish I could pause it!" James laughed at her.

"May I see the book?" Remus also leaned over; he was sitting in front of James. Jeanne handed over the book, but whipped her hand back casually as if nothing had just happened; Professor Binns had looked up from his desk, but continued his uneventful lesson anyway.

Remus read intrigued out of the book, and stared at the photo of the short-snout.

"So, how much are you getting for it?" James asked.

"Three galleons," she answered.

"_Three galleons!_" Sirius jumped into the conversation, leaning over his desk behind James. "That's too much!"

"Yeah, I thought it might be, but I didn't know what to do," Jeanne said guiltily. "At first I said five sickles, but the girl offered three galleons."

"Well, five sickles isn't enough either," James said.

"You should have made it for ten sickles, that way it's cheap enough for the other students to buy with their pocket money; that is, if you make a sort of job out of this," Remus said, handing the book back.

"I'm not sure yet, but I think you're right. I'll keep that in mind the next time I take a commission, but I feel so guilty making her pay all that money!" she whined.

"So what? You could get the money this time and worry about it _after_ you've spent the money!" Sirius smirked.

"You know what I'd buy?" James began.

"I don't care what you'll buy, James," Jeanne smiled playfully. "I'll talk to her again and—"

"No! Get the money; if you don't want it all, share it with us, and well use it for you!" Sirius said playfully.

"No way, Sirius," Lori leaned over from in front of Jeanne. "That's her hard earned money, not yours, so leave it alone."

"I was just playing," Sirius replied defensively.

"You're always playing," Lori grinned.

* * *

"Severus!" Jeanne called out after she got out of History. She ran up to him, but stopped. He turned around, and revealed that he was talking to another boy. The boy stared at her disapprovingly. He looked older, and had a very long and pale face. His silvery blond hair and steely blue eyes only made him look more arrogant.

"Oh," Jeanne said surprised, and a little disappointed. "I'm sorry, I…"

"You must be that mudblood girl Severus mentioned," the boy said in a dry drawl. Jeanne looked at him, puzzled.

"So what has he told you?" she asked curiously. "Has he told you how wonderful, beautiful, and charming I am?" she asked sarcastically with a large smile.

"On the contrary," the boy sneered. "He tells me you're quite the little stalker. I think he described you as, _'an impertinent child that never goes away.'_"

Jeanne gave a sort of hurt glare to him. She glanced at Severus and wondered why he would talk like that, or hang out with such a disgusting boy. It seemed to her that he was making it up, because Severus didn't seem the type, or even as creatively rude enough to make up that sort of statement. He just looked at her as if he didn't know her and agreed with what the boy was saying.

"Oh, well nice to meet you, too," she said with a smile and a bow. "And I'll be sure to give you the finger should we meet again." Her nasty side was beginning to kick in. She was usually very tolerant…until someone started to press her buttons. You just have to know what they are.

"Do not talk to me that way, mudblood!" he snarled.

"Do not call me a mudblood," she hissed and glared back.

"But it's what you are, isn't it? A filthy muggle-born child?" he sneered. "Your kind doesn't belong at Hogwarts."

"I wouldn't want to see an ugly _bitch_ like you everyday anyway." She liked to emphasize her cuss words.

"_Do not talk to me like that!"_ he roared and whipped out his wand. Jeanne reached for her wand, but stopped as someone else pulled out their wand beside her.

"Cut it out, Malfoy!" Sirius commanded, pointing his wand at his chest. James, Peter and Remus were right behind him; only Peter stood safely behind Remus and James, his wand still in his pocket.

"Ah, Black," the boy gave a wry smirk. "Protecting mudbloods now, are we? Tut-tut, I wouldn't expect that from someone out of _your_ family. But I suppose every family has a _black sheep;_ although, the Weasly family's full of them."

"Stop talking like you own the world, Malfoy, or I'll hex you into next week!" Sirius barked.

"You know that's an empty threat, Black. I'm _six_ years ahead of you," sneered Malfoy.

"Well it's three on one, Malfoy," James said behind Sirius, Remus also at the ready.

"Just go away, and take your ego with you," Sirius said. Malfoy shot a sick grimace at them and began to walk away.

"Don't forget you're a pureblood, too. It'll only ruin your reputation if you hang around with that filth," he said and walked away. Severus stalked after him silently.

After an awkward moment of silence between them, Sirius, James, and Remus put their wands away.

"Why did you barge in like that?" Jeanne asked. For some reason she didn't want to say that he 'helped' her, incase he didn't think of it that way.

"No one messes with our friends!" James said triumphantly.

"Well, I just don't like Malfoy," Sirius said as if he were talking about something disgusting.

"I'm your friend?" Jeanne repeated a little surprised. "I thought I was more of an…acquaintance."

"Well, if you don't want to be our friend, see ya," Sirius waved his hand as if to pass her away.

"You are such a…," Jeanne cut herself off. "So you only butt in because you hate that boy?" She fixed her bag over her shoulder and walked past him, making sure her hip _accidentally_ bumped her bag into his stomach as she did.

"Hey! You're welcome!" he shouted at her. She just made a weird laugh and walked on to her next class.

* * *

"Wow, you've finally made it to twelve years old," Jeanne said to her reflection in the mirror beside her bed early Thursday morning. She looked at it distastefully, then hurriedly brushed her thick, tangled mass of hair and grabbed her book bag before walking down to class. It was just another day to everyone else, and that's the way she looked at her birthday.

To her surprise though, when the owls came in the Great Hall at breakfast, a small tawny owl landed by her, a letter tied to its leg. She untied it gently and read the pretty handwriting on the envelope.

Jeanne

She hurriedly opened the letter and read it. It was from Mary.

Happy birthday, Jeanne! I'm sorry I couldn't give you a present (I'm a little short on money right now, and I wasn't sure what to get you). I'll make it up to you when you come home for Christmas! You'll get two presents at once! I hope you have a nice day…and I hope Carlson gets to you on time. Again, happy birthday, and my best wishes for you and your time at school. I hope you're doing well. Drop me a note will you?

Your Friend,

Mary

* * *

The rest of the day dragged on, and she spent most of it drawing more pictures. Since she had finished Caroline's dragon, she occupied herself by drawing little characters off the top of her head. She sat alone in a windowless corridor, using the light from a torch above her to color her picture. Drawing all day, even in classes she didn't normally draw in was a sort of 'birthday present' to herself.

Every now and then, a group of people would walk by, but sitting on the floor so quietly never drew attention to her. Jeanne looked up distractedly yet again and saw Severus sulking by, alone.

"Severus!" she called, but not in her usual happy, giddy tone. He looked around and finally found her little spot on the floor. "Are you alright?" she asked, but with no real reason other than to be nice. On the contrary, he should be worried about how he and Malfoy had made her feel earlier, but he didn't. Not _really._

"I'm fine," he said flatly. For a second he was about to walk off.

"Wait, Severus," Jeanne pleaded quietly. "Can I talk to you for a minute…or so?" she said, acting more like her weird self, shifting her eyes. "Please?" she added nicely. He walked over to her and stood in her light, but she didn't care since she wasn't drawing at the moment.

"What do you want?"

"I just wanna talk to you," she said innocently, and slightly hurt. "Will you sit down with me? Just for a minute? I promise I won't bite you or anything." To her astonishment, he set his books down and sat next to her. He stared at her, waiting for her to say what she wanted to.

"Well?" he said when all she did was smile at him.

"Well, what?" she said absentmindedly. "Oh, I'm sorry, my mind went off…. I just…" she looked down at the ground thoughtfully, but seemed a little troubled. "Did you…do you really hate me?" she asked childishly.

"What brought that up?" he said puzzled.

"Well, what that boy said. Do you really think I'm an impertinent child that never goes away?" He looked at her with an eyebrow raised. "Did you really tell that to him?" she asked sadly.

He didn't say anything for a moment.

"I really am sorry if I do bother you, I don't mean to. I just…wanted to be your friend."

"I'm not your friend," he said coldly.

"No," she said, a serious expression settled over her face. "You _are_ my friend. You may not consider _me_ a friend, but you're still my friend. I'm just…sad that you hate me so much. I never meant to do anything wrong."

Again, he remained quiet.

"Hey, when's your birthday?" she popped out suddenly.

"What?" he asked surprised.

"When is your _birthday?_" she repeated.

"In a couple months," he said looking away to the stone floor.

"Cool! My birthday's exactly two weeks from Halloween," she smiled. She wasn't sure if he was aware that Halloween was exactly two weeks away or not…in a way she was leading on that it was her birthday today, because she was too shy to come out and say it.

"Then…your birthday's today," he said, looking at her.

"How did you know? Are you counting down the days to Halloween or something?" she laughed.

"No…but…Halloween _is_ two weeks away now."

"So, when's your birthday?" she asked again.

"January ninth," he answered unenthusiastically. Jeanne looked wide-eyed for a moment, but then her face lit up brightly as she smiled at Severus in the semi-dark.

"That's so cool! I used to wish I were born on January 3, cause it'd be the third day of the _whole_ year! Three's my favorite number!" she said proudly.

"But mine's the _ninth_."

"Yeah, and three times three is nine!" she said as if she were talking to a stupid person. Her obsession with three was ridiculous.

"It's nothing special," he added, staring at the floor.

"Neither is mine," she smiled. "We can both have insignificant birthdays together! I'll even give you an insignificant hug!" she laughed.

"No thank you," he said.

"I'm just kidding. I won't hug you if you don't want one…at least not in public," she smiled deviously.

Severus suddenly stood up with his books.

"Are you leaving?" she asked sadly.

"Yeah, it's been over a minute," he said.

"Fine," she sighed. "I'll see you later then." Severus began to walk down the corridor. "Happy really really really early birthday!" she called out and waved before he got too far, but he never saw her, and just disappeared around the corner. It was a silly thing to say when his birthday was nowhere near, but who said Jeanne was perfect? Jeanne smiled to herself.

* * *

Jeanne arrived in a mostly empty common room, and found her friends sitting by the fire.

"You're late!" Lori complained like a mother.

"Sorry, I was just doing a little bit of drawing," Jeanne answered with a little smirk.

"Oh, what were you drawing?" Wendel asked curiously.

She plopped down in a chair next to him and pulled out her portfolio. She showed him the several doodles she'd done and then the one she had started coloring. As she did, Lori suddenly interrupted.

"Jeanne," Lori said. "I've…got a little something for you." She gave a big smile and leaned under her chair and pulled out a fairly large box. It was very nicely wrapped, and had a decorative bow on it.

"Happy birthday!" Lori grinned and held it out to her.

Jeanne looked startled for a minute, but took the box nonetheless, and set it in her lap and looked back up at Lori. "Open it!" she prompted. Jeanne lifted off the top after untying the beautiful bow, unveiling a very gorgeous cake.

"My mother made it!" Lori grinned. "I told her it was your birthday, and she sent it for me. It's one of her French cakes her mother taught her how to bake."

Jeanne stared at her friend all sparkly eyed.

"Thank you," she smiled sweetly.

"Happy birthday!" Lori said again.

"Yeah, happy birthday!" Wendel joined in.

Jeanne examined the cake with a look like she was happy and sad at the same time.

"Are you okay?" Lori asked a little concerned.

"Yeah," Jeanne smiled back at Lori. "I'm just…really glad I have friends like you guys." She laughed to herself. "I guess it sounds cliché, but it's true. I really am grateful that I meet such wonderful people who care about me…even when I don't."

"Well, you should care about yourself!" Lori frowned. "How are others going to care about you if you can't even care for yourself?"

Jeanne cracked an enormous smile.

"Come on!" Wendel broke into their charming conversation with a mad sort of look down at Jeanne's lap. "I want some of that cake!"

* * *

So, her birthday came and went, and Halloween crept up as if it were the day after. As soon as class let out, she made a short stop at her house and ran up to the owlry to see Vires. It had really been forever since she had seen him, and she felt so guilty for not getting her butt up there to see him earlier.

She searched through the lines of owls perched around, but it didn't take long to sort them out. The majority of the owls were sitting away from a certain area, where she found Vires proudly perched all alone.

"Have you been a bad boy?" she said in a funny voice as if she were talking to a small child. He cawed at her and landed on her shoulder. She had slipped on her pads under her robes after class.

"You're a sweet baby, aren't you?" she smiled and said in the same motherly voice. She held out her other hand with a fistful of cake in a napkin. "Lori's mom made it for my birthday. She was awfully nice to do it." She told him. She leaned against the wall to catch him up on all the time she hadn't seen him; she was too afraid to sit on the dropping and animal corpse infested floor.

"I'm really sorry I didn't come to see you earlier," she added. "It looks like you've ended up dominating up here, though," she looked at him a little disapprovingly. "You know…do you remember Severus?" she asked him with a melancholy look. He flapped his wing as if to say yes. "Well, you don't think he really hates me do you?"

Vires cawed at her incredulously and flapped his wings.

"It's just…uh! Why do I always try to make friends with people like him! It's like I have a fetish for collecting friends that hate me," she scowled at herself. Vires flapped his wing in her face as if her were slapping her.

"Whatever," she sighed.

"What are you talking about?" came a voice. Jeanne looked up and saw James and Sirius.

"How long have you been there!" she said startled.

"'_Do you really think Snivelly hates me?'"_ Sirius said in a mocking voice. She scowled at him.

"Shut up," she said flatly. "What are you doing up here?"

"What? Can't we use the owls, too?" Sirius asked rhetorically.

"I'm sending a letter home to my family," James answered and picked out his owl from the rest and tied a sort of messy parchment to its leg.

"You don't have to tell her what we do," Sirius muttered to James, but Jeanne still heard them.

"Well, excuse me. I'm sorry I can't be talked to like a human being," she sneered and stood up.

"You're excused," Sirius answered smartly.

"I've got a letter for Mary. Would you be able to bring it home to her?" she whispered softly to Vires, her back turned to Sirius. She tied the letter to his leg and let him go.

"Why do you have a _falcon?_" Sirius asked as she walked by, but she ignored him with a gay little smile and skipped away.

* * *

Jeanne entered the busy entrance hall, intending to join the festive Halloween feast in the Great Hall, but she was detoured.

"Look at this," Malfoy muttered to his Slytherin friends as he saw her prance by. "Hey! _Mudblood!"_ His friends guffawed behind him. Jeanne whipped around, although she second thought answering to mudblood; she definitely regretted it. She saw Severus among Malfoy's friends; he wasn't laughing, although he had the hint of a wry smirk.

"Heh, she actually answered to it," one thick boy said behind Malfoy. Malfoy gave a cold grin.

"What the hell do you wan" Jeanne began, but she was interrupted.

"Now, now, that is not a very proper thing for a mudblood to say to a _pureblood,_" Malfoy sneered. Jeanne realized using harsh words wouldn't do anything but make her look more stupid. The only thing she could really do around this boy was keep her head and think on her feet. The problem, however, was she wasn't good at that.

"I wouldn't want to waste any words on you anyway…even cursing at you would seem nice compared to your ugly attitude," Jeanne glared.

"_What did you say to me?"_ Malfoy hissed.

"Oh, what? I couldn't hear you. Could you speak up? You sound so much like a sick and dying animal I thought there was one in here, that is, until I noticed your mouth was moving." She cocked her head pompously.

"You _filth!_" he yelled, outraged. He whipped out his wand, and she matched him with hers, although his was pointed at her chest, she pointed for his head.

"You think you can beat me with _magic_, you disgusting mudblood?" he spat.

"I wouldn't think you had enough room left in your head to learn magic, what with all that hot air," she said sickly.

"_Rictumsempra!"_ Malfoy shouted savagely. Jeanne was very lucky she was small and very skinny, because one instinctive turn to the side saved her frail body from being pummeled.

_I'll have to remember that one,_ she made a mental note in her head and thought frantically of a spell she had learned to use on him. They were very numbered.

In the time it took her to finally think of the one she might be able to use, his next spell hit her on the nose and she fell back, with the first enormous nose bleed she could ever remember having.

At that time, at the top of the staircase, Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter looked down at the pitiful scene. It was beginning to attract a lot of attention, especially with the Slytherins.

"Aww, man. Not Malfoy again," James said. "Come on." He began to pull his wand out of his pocket, but Sirius took hold of James' arm.

"No," he said. "She's on her own. Besides, we don't have to run to her rescue every time she gets herself in a fix." Peter seemed to agree; not that he could argue.

"But Sirius!" Remus said incredulously. "He's a _seventh_ year!"

"Well, it's her problem if she messes with the wrong people," he answered pitilessly. Truthfully, he was still mad at her for their petty arguments (which was stupid, but you know youngboys), and slightly because she considered Severus a friend when he didn't like him. Also, they weren't in the smae house, and he didn't feel like he was obligated to save her neck. This was his way of making a point—whatever it was. Instead, they all walked past and entered the Great Hall somewhat reluctant.

Back at the bottom of the staircase, Jeanne lied helplessly on her back, almost all of the Slytherins laughing at the stupid first year that took on Malfoy. That made her furious, that status was so important to them. She would make herself better than 'status' on her own if she had to.

"_Wingardium leviosa!"_ she shouted. The Slytherins laughed at her ridiculous come back, but they were too busy mocking they didn't see her whip her wand swiftly as a giant pot near by bashed into Malfoy's head. Severus must have been the only one that saw it coming, but only enough to save himself from being hit.

There was an almighty crash, shattered pieces of glass tumbled to the floor, and Malfoy slouched over, bleeding all over the side of his head. The furious Slytherins around him advanced on her as their fallen comrade slumped to the floor. They had taken out their wands when a sharp voice cut through them like a sword.

"_What on EARTH is going on here!"_ shouted McGonagall, pushing her way through the cluttered onlookers. The color evaporated from her face when she saw the scene of blood and mayhem at the center. "_WHAT HAPPENED!"_ she shrieked, outraged.

The Slytherins hid their wands back in their robes and began to help Malfoy as he scrambled to his feet. Jeanne pulled herself into a sitting position, curled in a tight little ball, holding her nose in a futile attempt to hold back the blood leaking out of it. Suddenly, she was pulled to her feet by the neck of her robes. McGonagall had both Malfoy and Jeanne in her merciless grip.

"There are strict rules against magic in the halls, and dueling is absolutely prohibited!" she said, her voice shaking with fury. "After you have been attended to in the Hospital Wing you will both receive detentions!" They had only a second to glare at each other before McGonagall pushed them rather forcefully to the Hospital Wing.

Jeanne was shocked; she had never received a detention, not even in her home world. Sure, there were some narrow escapes, but this took the pot! 'Even a goody-two-shoe has to get a detention sometime,' she thought. 'Besides, he deserved it. At least he's going down with me!'

* * *

Later that night, on her way back down to the Hufflepuff common room through the deserted corridors, she found Severus still lingering sulkily to himself.

"Severus," she said no louder than a little breath. He turned around and leered at her. "I'm sorry about earlier," she said sadly.

"Why are you apologizing to me?" he asked suspiciously.

"Because," she shrugged. "It was silly; all that. It was pointless…well, unless pride and ego are worth fighting for. I suppose it is," she smirked up at him, knowing it held true for Severus Snape. He just stared silently at her. "Well," a wry smile suddenly cracked across her face. "Well, at least it was an 'eventful' Halloween!"


	7. Quidditch is a Game, Not a Sport

Hey all! I'm so sorry that I've been practically dead for so long!...And I'm also sorry that I sounded like such a Texan hick... But anyway, the awsome Jinxeh helped me write this chapter and annialate my writer's block, so thank her very very much if you like this story! Also, I know Quidditch is very boring, so bare with me while we zoom by this and get on with our lives! XD Just kidding! I'll be sure to spit out the next chapter soon! Let the suspense build!...And give me time to write lots, lots more for all of you!

Jeanne has to deal with the whole...magic thing in the wizarding world (who would ever guess?), but now _sports_? Well, technically, my own father takes to believe that there are only three true sports in the world, and all the rest are just games. So there you have it. But try telling that to Sirius Black and James Potter!

* * *

Chapter Seven

_Quidditch Is a Game, Not a Sport_

The first week of November began with an explosion of excitement about the first Quidditch match of the year. Jeanne, being Muggle-born, had no idea why they were getting so worked up. However, it helped to have a few friends from a wizarding family. She tried to stay chipper about things all the same, even if her own enthusiasm for Quidditch wasn't exactly contagious. Her detention with her Head of House was over and done with, and so she really didn't have much that could have dragged her cheery disposition down.

James was, by far, the most "enthusiastic" about the upcoming event, though his disappointment with the fact that he wasn't allowed to be _in_ the match was evident.

"It's so _stupid_ that first years can't be on the Quidditch team!" James whined as he, Sirius, Remus, and Peter walked out to the Quidditch pitch early Saturday morning.

"Well, you'll just have to deal with it, mate," said Sirius. "Besides, there won't be a spot on the team 'til our third year, because the oldest players on the team now are still _sixth_ years, so unless something happens to them, you're out of luck"

They trod up to the raised seats high above the pitch, and looked around between the dots of people for a place to sit. James noticed someone waving down to them out of the corner of his eye. He saw Jeanne smiling down at them happily, sitting with her friends, and he nudged Sirius.

"Up here!" she called.

"Wanna go up and sit with them?" James turned and asked his companions, one of which was now looking a little sulky.

"Why do we have to sit with _her_?" Sirius said in a tone.

"Well, we don't _have_ to," James shrugged back. Truthfully, it didn't really matter to him; he didn't think Jeanne was all that bad, though if Sirius didn't want to sit with her, that was fine too.

"Come on Sirius, what do you have against her? She's not _that_ bad," said Remus. Sirius turned on him with an eyebrow raised.

"She's _annoying!_ She's always making weird noises, and giggling and…_jumping_ all over the place! I still can't tell—are all Hufflepuffs like that, or is it really just _her_ that acts like that?"

"I like her," Peter said. "She's nice, and she draws really good, and she's funny, and—"

"You like just about anyone," Sirius grumbled huffily.

"Why don't we just sit over here, then?" James pointed to a little stretch of bench close to them. Sirius had no sooner sat down than Jeanne plopped down on the end next to him, followed by Wendel and Lori. She had a big grin on her face and was, as Sirius noted in slight distaste, uncomfortably close to them.

"Hey, guys!" she smiled meekly, but Sirius just gave her a stiff glance and looked away. He'd been stand-offish around her ever since Halloween, but she tried her best to amend…whatever it was that she did to upset him.

"Hi," said Remus nicely from further down the row. She smiled back to him and waved happily.

Lori was nestled neatly between Jeanne and Wendel, and was bouncing up and down on the bench with a somewhat immature sort of anticipation.

"So, how _are_ you guys?" She smiled at Sirius again, who tried his best to ignore her. "Who are you guys going to support?"

James gave a little laugh from Sirius' other side.

"Hufflepuff, of course! I'd be insane if I went for Slytherin!" James grinned.

"I'm not going for either," Sirius said dully. "I don't want Slytherin to win, because I hate them, but Gryffindor'll just beat Hufflepuff in the next match anyway."

"Hey! You're such a prat, Sirius!" Lori frowned, then added in an undertone to Jeanne, "And _why_ are you friends with them?"

"Because," she answered quietly with a shrug. Truthfully, she wasn't entirely sure why she was, either—though it was probably just the yearning that most kids new to a school had; the need to establish friendships, and make them last. Well, that and she also did enjoy their company as well, though James, Peter, and Remus more than Sirius, which was something that she wanted to fix in the near future.

Jeanne stared down at the pitch where fourteen miniature-looking people were walking out towards Madam Hooch. She watched as little yellow and green dots greeted each other.

"What are they doing?" Jeanne leaned over and asked Sirius.

"They're shaking hands before the match, everybody knows that!" Sirius stared at her incredulously.

"I don't," Jeanne answered in a small voice.

"Oi, don't you watch Muggle sports?"

"No…."

Down on the ground, Madam Hooch opened a large box and for a split second, Jeanne could have sworn she saw something very shiny glint and zoom off. James's eyes seemed to have seen it too, but he had a gleeful smile on his face.

"Uhh, what was…that…that shiny gold thing that went off?" Jeanne asked curiously, looking around at the others. They all turned and gave back a funny look. "What?" she squeaked nervously and shifty-eyed. "I'm not _stupid_, I just don't know!"

James smirked.

"No, it's not that you're stupid. The thing you saw was called the Snitch," he said informatively.

"Uhh, what?"

"The Snitch!" James smiled. "It's a tiny gold ball, about this big." He held up two fingers in a circle, about the size of a walnut. "And it flies around the field very fast; it's really hard to see. Most people don't ever see it, but it's the Seeker's job to find it and catch it. See those players that aren't really doing anything?" He pointed up at one of the players.

"Hey! That's Wolfgang!" Jeanne smiled, pleased that she was able to recognize the seventh-year Hufflepuff student.

"Yeah, he's our team Seeker," Wendel said.

"So he has to find that little…Snitch?" Jeanne asked. "What does it do?"

"It's worth a hundred and fifty points, and when it's caught the game's over," James said. "Usually whichever team Seeker catches it ends up winning the game for their team, since the points usually put them in the lead, if they weren't already."

"Oh…wait, so why even bother playing the _rest_ of the game if it all comes down to catching the Snitch, anyway?"

More than one exasperated, but not really cold-hearted glare met her eyes after she asked her question, and she went silent for a moment, quietly remembering never to bring that part up again. Apparently the boys didn't like their favorite sport to be questioned, no matter of how valid the question was in the first place. She stayed silent for another couple of minutes, in which Hufflepuff scored a goal and Slytherin came close to scoring another, but eventually her curiosity got the better of her once more.

Jeanne went on to ask a million other questions; she seemed to be the only ignorant one, because everyone gave her answers at random, even Lori. It made her feel very stupid, like a girlfriend sucking up to her boyfriend and asking how American football works, and of course, he excitedly answered and explained everything else he could think of, down to the plays.

"Hey, we're missing all the _game_, explaining things to her!" said Sirius in aggravation, casting a slight glare towards Jeanne. She responded by sticking her tongue out at him, but it was in a mocking style; she burst out giggling right after she did it, causing Sirius to roll his eyes and return his attention to the game.

Jeanne tried to keep her own attention solely on the flying figures on broomsticks above her, but she found that Quidditch just didn't seem likely to be something that she was overall interested in. Maybe with time, and when she'd been given more of a chance to familiarize herself with the players and rules of the game, she could grow to be quite fond of it…but right now, she just found herself feeling a little bored with the whole thing. Still, she at least attempted to feign interest in the sport, perhaps hoping to appease those that she sat with so they wouldn't feel quite so exasperated with her.

"_And Levinson scores a goal for the Hufflepuffs!_" came the near-scream of the commentator of the match, almost immediately followed by those clad in Hufflepuff House colors to jump up from their seats, stamping their feet and clapping their hands together, screaming as loudly as they could to support their team, which was currently ahead in terms of game points. It was almost infectious; Wendel and Lori jumped up as well, yelling and cheering, and—although she did hesitate for a small moment—Jeanne jumped up as well, and pretended followed suit.  
"Hah, look at them!" said Sirius, clapping his hands together sharply and laughing before pointing to the opposite end of the Quidditch pitch, where a nearly solid mass of green and silver-clad students stayed in their seats, many looking sullen, or annoyed. "Take that, you blighters!"

"The way he talks, you'd think _Gryffindor_ was in this game and just scored the goal," James laughed, nudging his fellow dark-haired friend in the ribs with his elbow and causing him to grin.

"Hey, as long as Slytherin isn't winning, I consider this a good game," said Sirius amiably, his eyes scanning the bright skies above as he watched the players zoom back and forth on their broomsticks, tossing the Quaffle between them and avoiding the zipping Bludgers as much as best they could. The Beaters for the Slytherin team, Jeanne quickly noticed, were amazingly agile and quick, and while those from the Hufflepuff team weren't all that bad themselves, Slytherin definitely had an edge on them in that area of the game.

The jubilance, in addition to the constant stamping and cheering, of the Hufflepuff House was short-lived, however, for it was only a couple of minutes later that Slytherin scored the next goal. To Jeanne the immediate effect was almost comical, though of course she was at least a little disappointed that the opposing House team had scored instead of her own. The Hufflepuff supporters mostly sat right back down again, while the Slytherin supporters rose to their feet, in direct imitation of the display that the Hufflepuffs had put on so recently beforehand.

Those Hufflepuffs—and their supporters, of which there were many—that stayed on their feet were either glaring up at the sky and the players that darted about up there in their colored robes, or else were shouting profanities in anger, which made Jeanne giggle, though she tried to stifle it so she wouldn't draw attention to herself from the people she sat with.

She usually wouldn't have cared—nor noticed—that she was giggling so much, but Sirius seemed to be particularly aggravated at the moment, and when adding in the fact that he tended not to act particularly nice to her in the first place…well, it was probably better just not to push her luck, she thought. Still, that didn't mean she couldn't find everyone's reaction to the recent play to be amazingly amusing for her to witness, after all…

'_It's just a game, isn't it?_' she asked herself in slight bemusement, though a grin was settling itself upon her young face anyway. She looked around just in time to see Sirius jump to his feet and shout up into the air at the flying players ("_Dodge_ the Bludgers, you idiot! _Dodge_ them!"), and this time didn't even try to hide her giggling. '_Men can be so silly about sports, no matter _what_ country they live in, apparently! Look at him shouting!_'

After a while of watching the game a little more and paying attention to the actual players instead of their supporters, Jeanne's interest in the game begin to peak a little bit, though she still couldn't match the enthusiasm being put forward by those that she was sitting by. She became more familiar with the players and how they all worked together on their separate teams, and came to admire the Beaters from the Slytherin team, as they were quite able to impress her even when she didn't know very much about the game to begin with, and therefore didn't have any previous games in which to compare this one with.

"Look, look!" Lori jumped up and pointed excited far above her head towards one of two small dots in the sky, one of which seemed to have just gone into a dive. "I think Wolfgang spotted the Snitch!"

"She's right!" James' excitement about the gang suddenly appeared to have increased threefold and he leapt to his feet, shielding his eyes against the sun by cupping his hands over them and struggling to see the tiny figures currently zooming above his head. "_C'mon, Wolfgang!_"

It took a moment, but soon the whole of the stadium was caught up in what was happening, and supporters for both sides were cheering wildly, cheering Wolfgang on, or else screaming for the Slytherin Seeker to catch up as well. Jeanne watched somewhat inquisitively, remembering what James told her about what would happen when the Snitch was caught. She wouldn't have minded the game to be over somewhat soon, but still wanted to be supportive of her house, and was therefore cheering along with the other Hufflepuffs as well.

"_And Wolfgang seems to have spotted the Snitch! But…wait, what's this?_" The voice of the announcer sounded shocked, and it was almost as though a collective breath was suddenly drawn in from everyone in the pitch. The little dot in the air that was Wolfgang had paused, and as had the other Seeker. For a small moment, Jeanne was jubilant, thinking that maybe he'd caught the Snitch after all. However… "_Oh_ _no! The Snitch escaped!_"

A collective groan overtook the Hufflepuff supporters of the stadium, but the Slytherins burst into cheers, happy that it wasn't yet over for them. The announcer of the game—whose voice Jeanne didn't recognize—wasn't taking too well to this.

"_Oh come _on! _What are you, blind? It's a golden ball, and it's a sunny day! It reflects! How can you lose it like that, you stupid—?_"

"_Jordan!_" Jeanne laughed when McGonagall's voice sounded in the megaphone, and as did Wendel and Lori.

"_Sorry, Professor…anyway, Levinson passes the Quaffle to Delaine! Ooh, watch out for that Bludger!_"

"Does Professor McGonagall always monitor the person that does the commenting? Who is that, anyway?" She squinted her eyes and peered towards the box that the student, McGonagall, and the scorekeepers were in.

"Oh, that's Gavin Jordan," Sirius sniggered, for once not letting the fact that he wasn't Jeanne's biggest fan get in the way of explaining things to her. "Fifth year Gryffindor. He's great," he laughed, as James grinned beside him. "I've heard all kinds of stories about his commentaries from years before—it's amazing McGonagall hasn't forced him to _stop_ commentating by now."

"Yeah, he's really great!" Peter chimed in, sounded excited. Once again, Jeanne watched as Sirius repeated the expression that he'd given Peter before, on their first day at the castle; that strange look he gave Peter, like he wanted to say something to him, but didn't want to start something he'd regret. James noticed nothing; his eyes and ears were trained on the game, and he wasn't paying attention to anything else that was going on around him.

"_Ooh…Slytherin Chaser, Cole, has the Quaffle, and is headed towards the goal hoops with Gryffindor Chasers Delaine and Feldman on his tail! And…he scores? What the bloody—_"

"_JORDAN!_"

"_Sorry, Professor_…" came Jordan's sullen reply. Jeanne was torn between laughing at the verbal confrontation going on between Gavin Jordan and Professor McGonagall, and feeling bad that the opposite team just scored points against Hufflepuff.

"_Slytherin ties,_" reported Jordan, the venom more than evident in his voice as he did. "_Forty to forty._ _What a load of bloody boll_—"

"_JORDAN! I swear, _one more time_ and I'll_—"

"_All right, all _right_, already_…"

"C'mon, Hufflepuff!" Lori shouted to the sky, cupping her hands around her mouth in order to make her voice seem a little louder. "C'mon, Wolfgang! Get the Quaffle back and _score_!"

"What she said!" Sirius was on his feet and standing near Lori, pointing to her with one hand and using the other in much the same way that Lori was to amplify his own, rather lower-pitched shouts. "What?" he suddenly asked defensively when he turned and noticed that all of the girls were looking at him and giggling. "Well, I agree with her!"

A half-hour or so later the game still wasn't over with, and Jeanne was beginning to feel a bit bored. As uninterested in the sport as she had been in the beginning, her interest had begun to peak once she'd learned a little more about it, and she'd been quite able to be swept up in the enthusiasm…but now she felt as though she was seeing everything played out again and again, over and over again, and she found herself hoping that the game would be over soon. She didn't have much of an eye for recognizing and differentiating between different plays; everything looked the same to her, and she was tired of watching a bunch of players she didn't really know zoom above her head as they tossed the Quaffle between one another.

"Look! The Slytherin Seeker's after the Snitch!" James shouted loudly, at around the same time that everyone else in the stands took notice of this event. Jeanne looked towards where he was pointing to see a figure clad in green diving between the other players between the hoops, Wolfgang right at his tail. Even though she wanted the game to end, she also wanted Hufflepuff to win—which made it all the more sadder when the Slytherin seeker suddenly swooped upwards, his fist held above his head triumphantly, and a small shimmer of gold glimmering from between his fingers.

"_And Seeker Bregman captures the Snitch_," came Gavin Jordan's voice, sounding surly. "_Slytherin wins, 220 to 80. _Damn_ it. Hey!_" This was quickly followed by what Jeanne harshly suspected as the sound of a microphone being forced out of his hands by an irate Transfiguration Professor.

The Slytherins—and Slytherin supporters—were already on their feet, waving their small hand-made flags and stamping their feet, cheering loudly as their Seeker took a victory lap around the pitch.

"Aw, come on…" James groaned. "So _close_…"

"There's still next game; Gryffindors verses Hufflepuff," said Sirius hollowly. "C'mon, let's go before everyone starts crowding to get out of here…"

Jeanne, Lori, and Wendel followed after the boys, figuring that it would probably be for the best. However, it seemed that everyone had the same idea, and they found themselves walking along at a snail's pace as everyone crowded to get out. Eventually they made it to the grassy ground and the crowds thinned out, allowing for them to walk about more leisurely. Ahead of her, Jeanne spotted a dark, slightly greasy head of hair, attached to a body clad in black and green. A grin came to her lips and she skipped ahead of her friends until she caught up with Severus, who was walking alone.

"Hiya, Severus!" she said brightly, linking arms with him before he even realized that she was even there. Not to her surprise, he instantly tried to jerk his arm out of her grip, but she held on fast and simply laughed. "Great match, huh?"

"We, the Slytherins, _won_, if that's what you mean," said Severus indifferently. This time, she let him unhook his arm from hers, though she continued walking side-by-side with him as they made their way towards the castle. "Not that I didn't expect it," he added, as though it was an afterthought.

As they continued walking, Jeanne noticed that he was purposely trying to walk faster than her, but she refused to not match him step-by-step. She was spurred on by the fact that he didn't seem to look particularly annoyed by her presence, at least; she supposed that the outcome of the game had put him at ease, if not only for a small while.

"So who do you think's gonna win the next match?" she asked curiously, not really caring about the answer but hoping that he would engage in conversation with her. He shrugged one shoulder, looking disinterested, but answered.

"Gryffindor, I suppose," he said, though he seemed loath to admit it.

"Hear that, guys? Snivellus is cheering for Gryffindor!" Jeanne sighed slightly when the familiar voice of Sirius Black sounded from behind them, and she turned around with a glare, walking backwards so she could face him. She pointed at him quickly with an ominous fore-finger as if indicating a silent guarantee that he'd get his sooner or later. Severus was trying to pretend like he didn't even notice anyone else was there, though his expression had darkened somewhat.

"How come you're so mean to him, Sirius?" she asked angrily. "Can't you be nice, for once? What's he done to you?"

"Today?" asked Sirius, sounding amused. James, who was walking beside him, was grinning; Remus was pretending as though he wasn't hearing anything, whereas Peter just looked nervous. "Well for one, I have to look at his greasy hair as I walk behind him. That's not a good enough excuse?"

"You can be so stupid, sometimes!" said Jeanne huffily, turning around and grabbing Severus' arm, pulling him further ahead. He dragged his feet somewhat, but didn't seem too disinclined to go with her. Lori and Wendel caught up with them as they reached the steps that would lead into the Entrance Hall, both looking chipper enough; they'd fallen behind Sirius and the other boys, so hadn't seen the exchange of childish insults. "Sorry about them, Severus. They're idiots sometimes, like I said," she sighed.

"I could have told you that," mumbled Severus under his breath, then shrugging away her hand when she went to place it on his shoulder. He left them without another word, quickly walking up the steps with his cloak billowing out behind him just slightly.

"Bye…" called Jeanne after him softly. "Okay, then…" She made a nervous, shifty glance as he left her behind, feeling a bit shot down again by his silence to her.

"C'mon, Jeanne!" Lori grabbed her arm and began pulling her along the steps, and then through the front door. Wendel followed right after them, looking excited. "We didn't win, but we played a great game, so we're all gonna celebrate! Let's go!"

Laughing, though still a little confused as to why they would have a party in the first place, Jeanne allowed herself to be dragged along, looking forward to a night of celebrating with her friends.


	8. Snow Angels Are for Sissies

Hey again guys! As a note, I would like to thank Jinxeh again for helping me get this finished. I wrote most of this one, and she wrote about the last "page" of it. So thank her too if you like this chapter! She's the greatest! I hope to keep up now that I know where I'm going again! I'll try to finish up chapter nine by the end of next week--just a couple more pages to go on that one! Keep in touch!

Not many get so excited about snow as Jeanne. So she's a bit of a child at heart? A bit _too_ much of a child sometimes. But Jeanne gets a bit distracted from all that when she crosses paths with her Defense Against the Darks Arts Professor...What a _jerk!_ Ruining her fun in the snow!

* * *

Chapter Eight

_Snow Angels Are For Sissies_

It had been very dreary and rainy throughout November and at last into December. Finally, the first snow fell in the midst of all the gloom, and spirits lifted all around the castle. Many of the students were just dying for Christmas to hurry up and come, several of which were eager to visit their families again over the break. Severus, however, did not share this desire.

Severus sat on a dark sofa in the Slytherin common room, mildly listening to Malfoy's boasting of his glorious return for Christmas, for the hundredth time.

"My father plans on throwing a feast upon my return. He says he wants to celebrate my top marks. He suspects I'll ace all my N.E.W.T.s in the spring…"

His thick friends, Crabbe and Goyle, smirked and laughed with Malfoy when he made a joke or comment; Severus would give a slight smile, but remained silent throughout most of their conversations. Malfoy was doing most of the talking anyway. Severus didn't have many close friends, but spent his time randomly around different groups of people. Being a first year though, Malfoy didn't quite associate with Severus that much.

"Where are you going?" Malfoy inquired when Severus stood up.

"I'm going to work in the library," he answered, gathering his books and leaving the common room.

He took his route up from the dungeons and then to the marble staircase in the entrance hall. There were several students going in and out of doors to enjoy the calm and cheery Saturday morning. As he got to the foot of the staircase, however, he was distracted by a shrill screech bursting through the hall.

"_OH-MY-GOD-IT'S-SNOWING!"_

Severus looked up and saw Jeanne squealing and running down the stairs. When she got level with him and noticed him out of the corner of her eye, she skidded to a comical stop and smiled brightly at him.

"Hey, Severus!" she beamed. He stared back at her like she was crazy and half had the mind to walk away and pretend he didn't know her. "It's snowing, it's snowing!" she said excitedly. "Come on, let's go! Come outside with me; I want to see the snow!"

"Why? It's just snow," he sneered. She just gasped at him, wide-eyed, as if he had said something blasphemous.

"_Just snow?!_" she repeated madly. "I never get to see the snow! At least where I'm from. I'm so excited! Please come with me, it'll be fun! Just for a while," she begged him, giving him one of those absolutely pathetic, irresistible faces that anyone could resist. It was still amusing to watch, though.

Severus tried his best to not look at her, but couldn't help himself. He smirked and shook his head back at her ridiculous behavior.

"Fine," he heaved a bored sigh, but he felt like he was going to regret it later. She made a little cheer that sounded more like a piglet squealing and leapt into the air. At that he gave her a queer look and was beginning to walk away, but she grabbed his arm and dragged him with her.

"Woo! Come on!" she smiled and pulled on his arm. He trod after her to the front doors that were cracked open, allowing people in and out. As soon as Jeanne had made a giant leap off the front stairs, she jumped face-first into the snow and rolled around in it like a dog, giggling.

He stared down at her, feeling like he was babysitting a little kid and was, unfortunately, being dragged into this awkward situation. He secretly hoped that none of the Slytherins would see him…or anyone else, for that matter. He slithered over to the side where no one would be able to notice him easily. He was contemplating leaving her rolling like an animal while she didn't notice him, but he was a bit too late again.

Jeanne sat up and smiled up at him, ear-to-ear.

"Come on! Let's make a snow angel!" she said, gasping for breath after using all of it by rolling around, laughing.

"No! Snow angel's are for sissies!" he said, and looked at her as if she had just asked him to jump off a cliff. She'd probably ask him to do that eventually though, he thought to himself.

"Oh, come on you silly-willy!" she insisted. "It's _just_ a _snow angel! _Besides, moping around all day is for emo kids! You need to cheer up more!" Jeanne made a comical pouting face and put her hands on her hips in protest, pretending to make Severus' sulky face, but couldn't keep her face straight. It was apparent that Severus had no idea what an 'emo' was—and why would he, at that time?—but he refrained from commenting on the word. She yanked on Severus' arm and pulled him into the snow with her, laughing herself silly. He rolled himself over and stood up quickly, brushing snow off his robes.

"What are you _doing_?" he said incredulously.

"_Having fun,_ silly," she smiled and went about waving her arms and legs in and out. Severus stood back again and looked away, wishing he had told her to go away when she asked. But then again, her insane amount of happiness was rubbing off on him, and he didn't quite feel like going back in. She had a smile like a small child, very sweet, and inviting. The kind you couldn't help but almost admire her fascination for life. Although, she got a little out of hand at times.

"So where exactly are you from if you don't get any snow? You're awfully excited about a little bit of snow," he said. Sure, a 'little bit' was like two feet for him, and Jeanne would usually be lucky to get two _centimeters_.

Jeanne laid back in the snow still and held her mouth open, making an 'ahh' noise as she tried to catch snowflakes on her tongue.

"I live in the southern part of the U.S.," she answered finally, continuing her snow angel.

"Well, that's obvious," Severus answered. "But where?"

"If you must know," she said, a little frustrated, "I lived in Texas—and don't you even start on the 'cowboy' thing, either!" she added warningly. "Every time I tell someone I'm from Texas they ask if I ride _horses_ to school and live on a _ranch!"_ Severus didn't say anything, because that's really what he thought of when he thought of the southern U.S., in addition to Native Americans, and deserts.

"It's not like that at all," she continued. "It's very urbanized there, and I lived in central Texas; just far enough away from the coast to keep away from hurricanes, far enough from Tornado Alley to be safe from cyclones, and an almost zero percent chance of an earthquake—in addition to the lack of rain all year. Apart from being the musical capitol of the world, it's pretty easy going and boring there. And _very_ hot! To the point of insanity! And dry, and muggy so you can actually feel the air and heat around you."

She finished her memory of home and her angel simultaneously. Not being skilled with getting up without disturbing the snow angel, she struggled and rolled around it, and finally stood up next to Severus to admire it.

"There!" she said happily. It looked weird, especially since she messed it up when she got off the ground. "Beautiful! I shall name it _no more for me thanks, I am a Russian!"_ she said dramatically in a deep and stupid sounding voice, and raised her hands to the sky.

"What?" Severus stared at her, a little laugh escaping him.

"I'm just playing!" she laughed. "It doesn't mean anything." Suddenly, she plopped back down on the ground and singing very obnoxiously, and Severus looked away, getting rather annoyed by her.

'_How did she get into Hogwarts?'_ he thought. '_She acts like a bloody three-year-old!'_

"_Myyyyyyyyyy bologna has a first name, it's O-S-C-A-R; Myyyyy bologna has a second name it's M-E-Y-E-R; Ohhhh, I eat it everyday and if you ask me why I'll saaaaaaaay…that Oscar Meyer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A! ONE MORE TIME!"_

_SMACK!_

As she finished her song, a cold clump of snow hit Severus on the side of the face as he was looking away. The little snowflakes stuck in his greasy hair and tumbled down his robes, and his face felt even colder from the ice melted on his skin now.

"What—are you crazy?!" he shouted, but he didn't really need her to answer. In fact, her falling back with wild laughter and suddenly began coughing was answer enough. She was busily working on another 'snowball', but was having a lot of trouble with it. She would take a fistful of snow and try to squish it into a ball, but she squeezed it so hard all out of it fell out of her hand and she'd try to put some more on, but it would all just crumble apart. She made a funny little squeaking noise every time she failed.

"You can't even make a proper snowball," he sneered down at her. She just smirked up at him and went back to it. It was a wonder she had hit him at least once.

"I told you, I don't get snow where I'm from!" she said to her misshapen snowball.

"First, you're squeezing it apart," he smirked, leaning down in front of her. "You have to pat on the snow, like this." He picked up a large fistful and rolled it into a little ball; Jeanne watched him with a childish fascination. "See?"

"Whoa! How'd you do that?" she smiled excitedly. "Do it again!" He laughed at her, crumbled his apart, and did it all over again. She smiled and began to compose her own.

Severus pulled his wand suddenly out of his robes and pointed it at the snowball. Jeanne watched as he muttered a little spell and the ball flew twenty feet into the air. She gaped up at it for a while and watched it come back down; it took her a second to realize that it was coming straight down on her head, but she figured it out too late. She squealed as the icy ball splattered all over her face,

"Oh my god!" she screeched at him. Severus fell back laughing loudly. The look on her face the second before it hit her had been priceless. She joined in with him, and it took a minute or so for them to settle down.

"That's not very funny!" she said still laughing slightly and hit his arm playfully. He chuckled at her again. She took another fistful of snow and threw it at him, although it was a pathetic attempt. He held up his wand again, a devious smile on his face, and made several snowballs with a spell and laughed as he shot them all at her.

Jeanne screamed childishly and ran around, trying to escape his spell. She tripped a couple times, landing face first in the snow, but still laughing, and gathered up some of it and tried another. After a while, under pressure, she attempted some fairly good snowballs, and her aim eventually improved too. In the end however, she resorted to fighting dirty and shoved him over.

"Hey!" Severus shouted in surprise as he fell backward.

They both lay laughing once again on the ground. Severus stopped laughing first and sat up.

"Hey! Could you teach me that spell?" Jeanne laughed.

"No!" he said quickly. "Why would I teach _you_ that spell? I don't want snowballs bouncing off me every time I turn around!" he smirked.

"That's not fair! I would _never_ do that to you!" she said with a devilish smile. He rolled his eyes at her. Jeanne threw a handful of snow into the air; it was pointless; it was already snowing.

"Hey, Severus?" Jeanne said slowly.

He looked over at her. "What?"

She took a moment before answering, obviously carefully choosing what she was going to say.

"What'cha gonna do for Christmas?" she asked, but then added, "I'm just asking, if you don't want to answer, that's okay…."

They both sat there for a moment, and Jeanne waited patiently to see if he would answer or not. In fact, she occupied herself by seeming childishly interested in the snow falling on her face.

"I've signed up to stay at Hogwarts for the break…," he finally said. Jeanne had not expected it and turned to look at him.

"I suppose you wouldn't want to go home…" she said slowly. "I wish I had signed up now! I'm gonna miss you over Christmas!"

"I don't want to be stuck with you over the holidays, too!" Severus sneered.

"Hey!" she threw a clump of snow at his shoulder; he just shrugged it off and rolled his eyes at her. "Check it out! They're moving Christmas trees into the castle!" Jeanne hopped up suddenly.

"Hagrid!" she waved. He was hauling a large fir tree up the snowy lawn over his shoulder. Severus remained on the ground and watched as Jeanne ran off. After a moment, he stood up and walked back inside the castle.

"How are you?" Jeanne said with a bright smile when she reached Hagrid.

"Oh," he said, realizing she was at his feet. "What are yeh up to, Jeanne?"

"Nothing. Do you want some help?" she asked with a big smile.

"No, I've got it," he said, but grunted as he readjusted it over his shoulder. "I think yer a bit small to lift this tree, anyway," he chuckled at her.

"But, I really could help! See, just let me do it!" Jeanne smiled and took out her wand.

"What are yeh gonna do?" Hagrid asked apprehensively. No doubt he was a little nervous about a twelve-year-old holding a wand in her hand and pointing it towards him. Having spent quite a while working the Hogwarts grounds, Hagrid knew that not every young witch and wizard was exactly a master at magic, after all, especially first-years…

"_Locomotor tree!" _Jeanne said and flicked her wand. The tree slowly lifted off Hagrid's shoulder and floated a few feet above him.

"That's better," Hagrid said, relieved of the burden. "Wish I could still use magic an' stuff like that."

"Why can't you?" Jeanne asked as she started marching toward the castle, the tree drifting just in front of her. She had taken great pride in "owning" the levitation charm since her little duel with Malfoy and helped lift and move things all over the place (even if they didn't need it). She had looked up new charms for moving objects since then and practiced them all over the castle. But she still started to feel stupid using such a simple spell all the time, and tried hard to learn and remember more spells from then on.

"Well," Hagrid hesitated for a moment. "I was…expelled from my third year."

"What happened?!" Jeanne said, shocked; she almost lost the tree.

"Oh, look, Professor Montague," Hagrid said suddenly, without answering her question. "Hello professor!"

'_Slither-outer,'_ she thought.

Montague strode forward through the snow, but did not initially reply to Hagrid. He eyed Jeanne as she wandered forward directing the tree. He did not seem too keen to see her either, but nonetheless stopped by them.

"Hello, Hagrid," Montague answered with an impassive tone. "Helping to decorate the castle, are we?" He looked coldly down at Jeanne, she returned with a half-hearted smile (and that's saying something, since she always smiled somewhat brightly).

"Yep, Jeanne's just helpin' me carry that there tree up to the castle," Hagrid smiled. Montague nodded curtly at Jeanne.

Jeanne kept moving her attention back and forth between the conversation and lifting the tree; she didn't want to drop it. Well, if she did drop it, she'd prefer it be on Montague's head.

"How've yeh bin fairin' lately, Professor?" Hagrid asked, noticing the tension between Montague and Jeanne. A long, uneasy moment passed in which Montague glared down at her with a wry smirk on his face, and Jeanne smiled broadly, but not brightly back, her eyes empty of their usual sparkle. And their eyes hooked on to one another with thoughts just beyond the surface neither could quite hear.

Montague broke away from it with a sort of distinguished air and stared emptily at Hagrid, when suddenly there was a deafening and painful thud next to them.

"Oops…" Jeanne said quietly. She had dropped the tree, finally. Montague looked at her in clear distaste and returned his gaze to Hagrid.

"Quite fine, Rubeus," he answered dryly. "Just preparing for my holiday plans, as I'm sure that _most_ are." Discreetly, his eyes swept back to Jeanne before returning to Hagrid once more, but it happened so swiftly that she almost didn't catch it. "Will you be staying at Hogwarts for the holidays, Hagrid?"

"Well…yeah…" It seemed like an obvious answer, really, but still not one that he was overly-fond of admitting out loud. Jeanne felt a sudden pang of sympathy for the groundskeeper, thinking it had to be gloomy for him to spend his holiday alone and at Hogwarts, and most likely cooped-up in that hut of his when he wasn't attending a meal. At the same time, she couldn't help but feel a little irritated at Montague, because she was certain that he had to have known this in the first place. She thought about trying to sneak the tree back above his head and run off when she dropped it on him, but…even a teacher as ugly as Montague wasn't worth expulsion. So she left the tree there as it was until he had left.

"Hmm…well, I suppose that's the only option for some, isn't it?" asked Montague with forced, and obviously mocking cheer. "Staying at the castle on the occasion they have nowhere else to go…or else going back to their families, right?" He turned his gaze upon Jeanne, his smile not affecting the rest of his cold demeanor. "I assume you'll be rejoining your Muggle family for Christmas, will you?"

It was the strangest thing…there was nothing in particular that Montague did in which to display his disgust with the fact that Jeanne was Muggle-born, and yet…the coldness in his eyes seemed to increase tenfold when the word 'Muggle' even reached his lips, causing her own eyes to narrow in suspicion. She wanted to retaliate, and correct him in the fact that she didn't actually have a Muggle family in which to go back to…but all she had was Mary, and explaining to him the circumstances in which she was living with her in the first place wasn't something she was particularly keen on doing, even if Mary was indeed a witch.

"I'll be going home for Christmas, yes," she said with a small shrug, trying and failing to force the defiance out of her light, usually bubbly and jubilant-sounded voice. She didn't add anything else to it, perhaps figuring that he already had his mind made up about her; nothing she said would change his mind, and nor did she really care, either way.

Montague smiled wryly and nodded, as though he'd known this all along, and walked away from her and Hagrid at a faster pace, appeared quite pleased with himself. Jeanne glared at his retreating back, but diverted her attention and re-lifted the tree to continue to help Hagrid.

Having learned one or two things since she arrived at Hogwarts, Jeanne decided to use a new word that she'd heard spoken often in order to convey her feelings about all of this.

"Sheesh…what a git."


	9. Paranoia, Everybody's Comin to Get Me!

Chapter 9

_Paranoia, Paranoia, Everybody's Comin' to Get Me!_

Jeanne picked up a clod of snow and threw it at Mary.

"Hey, you little bugger!" Mary said, not without a smile of course. She shook it out of her slightly mangled hair. It comes from non-stop writer's block and a bad cold of a week past.

Jeanne giggled childishly on the ground; she laughed so hard she couldn't stand up anymore.

A big fluffy bird swooped down and snatched at the floppy ears of Jeanne's snowcap before it landed on her shoulder. Vires was rather fussy at having a snowball chucked at him as a "Christmas Greeting" after flying all the way from King's Cross to Mary's house. Jeanne was quite peculiar with greeting her friends….

"Hey! My hat's not a _real_ bunny, Vires! It's not even a rabbit…it's totoro!" Vires just gave her a big, blank, black-eyed stare. _'A _totoro…' he seemed to say with exasperation. _'What an idiot!'_

Mary unlocked the front door to the house.

"Come on, you little snow urchin, before you catch cold!" Mary said with a devilish grin. "Or before I catch another…" she mumbled as an after-thought when she turned away inside. Jeanne stood up dizzily and walked off the snowy front lawn.

Her big fluffy winter boots were wet, her bum was soaked through to her panties, her long hair had flecks of snow stuck in it, and her three layers of shirt, jumper, and winter coat still weren't enough to keep out the cold.

Vires flew off her shoulder and perched somewhere on a lamp in the living room when Jeanne flopped down on the floor in the entrance hall to tug off her boots. As Jeanne yanked off one boot and then the other (being from the South and unaccustomed to the snow, Jeanne had thrown on every piece of clothing she could fit), she couldn't help but be reminded of Montague. Being out of Hogwarts, being _home_ in the muggle world made her feel stupid and empty. It only fed her already growing distaste for her professor.

"What's got you in such a huffy-fuss?" came Mary's voice from a distance. Jeanne must have taken off her two layers of socks far too dramatically. She looked up blankly.

"What?" said Jeanne. As far as she knew, there was nothing wrong with her. At least she thought. Was she really letting Montague get to her so much that it showed?

"Well, what's happened? Did something happen at school? Something with one of your new friends?" Mary inquired not unlike a mother. And just like a mother, or the best big sister in the world, she seemed to know when there was something really up. Jeanne just stared back at her thinking. Now that she did, there was a lot she wanted to tell Mary, and even ask her. "Why don't you just take off all those bulky clothes and warm up inside and I'll put us a spot of tea on. You can just leave your trunk in the living room here, and then we can catch up, eh?" Mary said with a smile that could melt the North Pole. They were close enough….

Jeanne smiled back and began to stuff her coat in the closet as Mary turned for the little kitchen. After she had clambered her junk next to the bottom of the stairs, she made her way to the kitchen door, caressing Vires as she past him.

Mary was poking at the stove with her wand.

"Light, you stupid thing! Why did they never teach us things like this at school? When am _I_ ever gonna use the Drought of Living Death?!" said Mary as she turned to face Jeanne. "I never was very good with this home magic. Come to think of it, I wasn't even that good at the stuff they _did_ teach us." Mary scowled at her old wand, and Jeanne laughed childishly at her. She completely understood what Mary meant.

"Well, while those blasted muffins are cooking and the kettle takes about a thousand years to heat, we can take our time and have a sit. So what _has_ been going on with you? I hardly get any post from you, Jeanne." Mary smiled as she pulled out the little chair beneath the small table. Jeanne cuddled herself up upon her own chair, and, out of habit, curled her little knees up to her chest into a little ball.

Jeanne looked quite small and meek sitting like that. She didn't say anything for a moment and fiddled with her opal ring.

"Well, I made it into Hufflepuff," Jeanne said with a weak and shy smile.

"I know," beamed Mary. "That was my House, too. Like I said, I wasn't the smartest, and there was _no way_ I'd go to Slytherin! Not even if they made me ruler of the world and paid me!"

"Well, what about Gryffindor?" Jeanne asked.

"Nah, I fit in best with my fellow Hufflepuffs. Gryffindor would have been a bit too much for me." Jeanne giggled when she thought of Sirius and James…but then she thought of Severus and stopped laughing. Her eyes seemed to sink far, far away, and shifted about randomly as she thought deeply.

"Whoa! Hold on there! What's up with you?" Mary questioned, surprised. Jeanne shook out of it and looked up.

"Oh, uhh…" Jeanne wondered what it was she was supposed to say. "Well, I have a friend…well, actually, I don't think I'm _his_ friend, but, I mean, what do I do? I know I can't _make_ him be my friend, but I still try to be nice to him, but…" Jeanne hesitated as she spoke, and looked about everywhere but at Mary.

"Well, honey," Mary said softly. "If he doesn't like you, no matter how nice you are to him, then there's nothing you can do."

"I know but…I have some other friends in Gryffindor, but they always tease him—oh, and he's in Slytherin—and I try to be his friend, and sometimes he's okay with me, but sometimes he seems really unhappy. I wish I could do something for him—"

"Oh," Mary grinned with a look of new understanding. Then she laughed. "_Gryffindor_ and _Slytherin_! No wonder! Those Houses don't match at all, honey!"

"I know, I know!" Jeanne interjected hastily. Mary laughed again.

"It sounds like you like this Slytherin boy! What a match you're in for!"

"Hey! No, I don't like him…like that! I just want to be his friend! What's wrong with that?" Jeanne blurted out defensively.

"Alright, alright!" Mary laughed heartily. "But didn't you say you were much older in your home world?"

"Yeah," replied Jeanne slowly.

"Well, you have an adult's heart in a child's body. You're very different from your peers at school, and far more mature. It will take time for them to catch up to you and understand where you're coming from and accept you. Just wait and the people truly worth your kindness will show it and become your closet friends—as silly as that sounds. If they are good people in their hearts that are worth befriending, then in time you'll create a bond together; but if not, then all of this fuss will have been just a silly waste of time. Be patient; they're still young," consoled Mary.

Jeanne forced a bit of a smile and looked back to her faithful, knobby little knees and spun her ring around her finger. Suddenly, the kettle began to whistle obnoxiously.

"Cheer up, kiddo!" Mary smiled and walked over to the stove. She took a hot glove and lifted the kettle and poured the tea into the decorative little cup. Jeanne had never taken much to tea, but she accepted it anyway, and this was Britain after all.

"Well, Slytherins aren't usually very friendly, but if he's at least human, he'll come around sometime; you're far too delightful to ignore long!" Mary smiled sweetly down at the distracted child.

"No, I'm sorry, it's not that…" Jeanne's eyes narrowed as she thought. "You see, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor…he's such a…!" Jeanne trailed off and made a frustrated face and rolled her eyes. Mary laughed hard at her and had to grab onto her chair to steady herself lest she spill the tea kettle.

"Well, he is!" Jeanne insisted, clutching her cup. Mary calmed down and fiddled with her own cup—, which was finally filled.

"There's been a different Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher each year as far back as I can remember. They say the job's cursed," said Mary darkly. "But it sounds like this year's not the best of them all! Well, at least he'll be gone by the end of the year! You can look forward to that!"

"Why's it cursed?" Jeanne asked curiously. Mary sipped from her cup before she answered.

"I don't know, actually," she finally replied. "That's just what they say, and it's always been that way." Mary shrugged and took another drink.

Jeanne hadn't even taken one sip of her tea, and she supposed now was a good time while she thought of what to say next.

"But…I really don't like him," Jeanne remarked again. Mary just smirked, less amused the second time around.

"Well, some teachers don't get along well with—" Mary began, but Jeanne cut in.

"No, there's something more. I mean, something…I don't know…_wrong_ about him." Jeanne ran her finger around the rim of her cup.

"What do you mean?" Mary queried.

"Well, he doesn't seem to like me much. I mean, not just that, but something about me. And not just me, either. He seems to do it to all the muggle-borns…"

"Well, sorry to say, Jeanne, but a lot of people are like that nowadays," remarked Mary.

"But…I know what it's like for wizards to be prejudice, but he's different. He's very cold about it. He doesn't say the word 'mudblood', but there's this look in his eyes when he sees or is speaking to one, or comes across the word 'muggle'. I've never seen a person look like that before." Jeanne paused for a moment and stared at her tea, which was becoming very cool by now. Mary said nothing; what was there to say? All she saw was a child that was having normal problems with one of her professors.

"Mary," Jeanne continued slowly, "I know this sounds stupid, but you _know_ that I've seen a lot, and I'd like to think I know my stuff. Before I left Hogwarts, I spoke with him, however, briefly. But he always looked down at me with disgust…and suspicion. I can't deny that he's brilliant; his lectures are incredible. But he was almost trying to bore into me it seemed. And he brought up the holidays, obviously, but in his own snide way, he asked if I was returning home to my muggle family. He doesn't know that I live with you, but he knows that I'm muggle born. But I think he can sense the other part of me. I mean, he doesn't know about my worlds and such, but he's looking for it slightly. When we were talking, both of us had our eyes hooked on each other, and I felt like he was searching for something, and I knew there was something on his mind, too…. Something…" Jeanne trailed off as she searched for her word, but then gave a short laugh. "Heh. See, I don't even know. Neither of us could tell what the other was thinking. But we were _both_ looking for it. I really feel there's something up with him."

"Jeanne, that sounds like he was trying Legilimency on you. Do you know about that?" questioned Mary.

"Legilimency? No, I've never heard of that before," answered Jeanne with a puzzled look on her face.

"Well, Legilimency is sort of like…mind reading. Heh, I can't remember exactly what they said about it in school, but it had to do with being able to sort of see into another's mind. They say You-Know-Who is a master of Legilimency. He can _always_ tell when you're lying," explained Mary. Jeanne looked a bit more puzzled and disturbed. Had Montague been pulling Legilimency on her?

"But what do I do then? I mean, in other worlds there is telepathy and mind reading, and I've dealt with it before." Jeanne laughed. "I always hated it when people got into my business, so I learned to build up the strength to keep my thoughts far away from people trying to butt into them."

"That's good!" exclaimed Mary. "In Legilimency there are ways for the person to block out their thoughts from being read. That was the next thing I was going to ask you and tell you about. A person has to have a strong mind and…I don't remember the rest, but with all that mumbo-jumbo they can resist the person getting into their mind."

Jeanne looked a bit relieved and looked down at her cup. So, Montague hadn't gotten to her. She amused the thought of what he would have done knowing about her traveling. But if he was up to something, he would very likely hurt her knowing the threat she presented. But how could he hurt a student? He'd be caught. Jeanne had a feeling he'd be cunning enough to find a way, though. But in the mean time, she should learn more about this 'Legilimency'. But that would be upon her return to school.

"Well, Jeanne, have you considered that if he is up to something, then having a job in connection with the Dark Arts could be dangerous?" Mary asked. Jeanne raised an eyebrow at her and gave her a skeptical look.

"You think I haven't thought of that?" laughed Jeanne. "Of course it's sketchy that he has a Defense Against the Dark Arts job. He may be just teaching it, and Hogwarts may be the safest place to be in the world with You-Know-Who out there, but _I_ don't underestimate him." Mary gave her a stern look.

"Jeanne, don't get yourself into any trouble. Forget about all this and leave him alone. Keep your head down if he ever comes your way."

"But Mary! Why don't you believe me? He's bad news with a capital 'B-A-D'! Flashy lights! Come on!" Jeanne's eyes bulged and she waved her hands in the air.

Mary fell back in her chair with her cup in her hand, ready to drink, and laughed. After a moment, she settled down and set her cup back down after taking a drink—which she intended to do before she started laughing.

"Jeanne, he's a _teacher_. You're so over paranoid for trouble! It seems all those adventurous worlds have gotten to your head. Just sit out the year and everything will be fine, and he'll be gone." Mary stood up from her chair and smiled at Jeanne. "The muffins should be about done. Would you like one, honey?"

Jeanne sat with her chin on her hand with the face of a grumpy child that's been shot down. She didn't want a muffin _now_, and she really hated that Mary had just called her honey when she just said she was being over paranoid. Jeanne sighed and stood up from her chair.

"No thanks. I'm tired and I want a lie down," Jeanne said sulkily and trudged over to the door. She didn't mean to be rude to Mary, but she was put in such a bad mood now. Mary stared after Jeanne, a bit worry ridden, like a mother watching their child walk away from them. The little cup of tea Jeanne left behind was very cold now, and Jeanne had hardly taken more than a drink from it.

As Jeanne passed through the living room, Vires had the instinct to know this wasn't the time to perch on her shoulder. Jeanne left her trunk where it lay for now and dragged her feet up the stairs. For an instant she thought she would have rather stayed at Hogwarts than come back here, and she thought of how she could have spent more time with Severus. Then she remembered the last time they saw each other. She had been acting so childish in the snow, and she ran off without even saying goodbye to him. Some friend she was.

_'Mary was wrong,'_ thought Jeanne. _'I have a _child's_ heart with the experience of a hundred lifetimes that sometimes…I don't want.'_

Jeanne made herself forget about Montague for a while, and made her rude behavior up to Mary by drawing a nice Christmas picture, somewhat like a child does for a mother (but much better done than a child's finger painting). Mary smiled appreciatively to Jeanne and hung it, framed, in the living room. It gave the house more of a feeling that Christmas was on its way, considering there were no other Christmas themed decorations among the house. Living alone for the most part, Mary had never made up the house for holidays.

Jeanne insisted that the Christmas spirit be evident on every inch of the house. Eventually, she worked Mary into it the idea and made up the house together. They were a bit late in getting a tree, and a bit short on money, so there tree looked small and a bit sickly. They hung ornaments on it anyway, but needles shed from it like mad and remained long after they got rid of it. It got in their rooms, in their clothes, on the furniture; virtually everywhere! Jeanne and Mary stayed up all night to string popcorn together one time—and had a popcorn fight with each other, to which Vires was not too happy and the living room was completely littered. Mary enchanted the bulbs to turn different colors themselves, because they couldn't afford lights either. Jeanne cut snowflakes out of computer paper hung them from the doorways in place of garland, and Mary pulled out an old radio-like thing that picked up wizarding broadcast for the holidays. And for the final, and best touch in Jeanne's opinion, on Christmas eve Jeanne got to top the tree with a cheaply homemade star made out of a cookie. (She planned on eating it when they took the tree down.)

Being the infantile brat she is, Jeanne made herself wake up early on Christmas morning and snuck quietly into Mary's room. She found Mary huddled over on her work desk dead asleep.

"It's _CHRISTMAS!"_ squealed Jeanne from the doorway, raising her arms high and excitedly. Mary jolted and gasped, looking around gobsmacked as hell. When she finally turned around and realized Jeanne was bouncing off the walls, she groaned and told Jeanne it was too early.

"It's eight o'clock, wake up! I wanna open presents! Woooo!" she screeched and ran off. Mary grumbled and banged her head on her desk. Maybe she shouldn't have stayed up all night writing….

Later in the afternoon, Jeanne sat cozily on her bed, Vires cuddled next on her on her big pillow. She had her gifts from Mary at her side: a book of _More Spells for the Young Witch: Vol. 1_, and a box stocked full of Chocolate Frogs. (Jeanne really couldn't eat all of them, but she thought she might bring them with her to school and share them with her friends.) Vires cheerfully stabbed and nipped at a toy rodent Jeanne had bought for him in Diagon Alley. It dropped onto the floor and Vires left his spot to continue attacking it.

Jeanne sat and read over a letter for the tenth time with a scowl on her face.

_Dear Severus,_

_Hi! How are you? Sorry I have such chicken scratch for handwriting. And I'm supposed to be a girl! XD  Oh, that's supposed to be a little face; stupid really. The "X" is the eyes closed and squinted, and the "D" is supposed to be like a happy, open mouth._ I'm having…I hope you're having a good … _Is it okay with you at Hogwarts? I really hope so. I know you don't like going home to your parents. I wish I could have stayed at Hogwarts, too! It's okay here, but kind of boring. Can't wait to be back at Hogwarts!_

_Mary—my friend—got me some nice presents! She got me a big box of Chocolate Frogs and a new spell book! I can't eat all the Chocolate, so if you want some you can have them. But the spell book' s really cool! I found this spell in it to make books turn into mice! Actually, it's kind of weird and pointless, but cool to know at least!_

_Maybe I can get you a present, too! You should tell me something you want, and I'll get it for you! Anything—besides anything illegal! Ha-ha! Just kidding! I really miss you. I don't have anyone my age around here to talk to. It was fun hanging out with you at school. Maybe that spell you used on the snow will be in my book! Then I could pay Sirius back for being such a jerk to you! XD_

_Oh…I'm really sorry about running off on you that last day we saw each other. I was so hyper I forgot to say good-bye to you. I'm so-so-so-so-so-so-so sorry! Please forgive me! I tried to talk to you again before I left, but I never got the chance. That sounds like an excuse… It was really stupid. I need to grow up. I really hope I didn't hurt your feelings. Well, probably not, knowing you. You don't seem to like me that much anyway._ I'd do anything to make you happy…

_Crap, I'm sounding stupid now. No doubt to you I always sound stupid. Man! I'm getting all confusing! Sorry! Why am I apologizing? I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'll be your friend no matter what, and if you ever need someone to talk to…I'm still here._

_Lots of Love,_

_Jeanne_

* * *

Note: All the things not in italics are things she crossed out.

* * *

"That sounds _stupid!"_ Jeanne glared at her writing. So many parts of it were scratched out that it looked like a piece of trash. She hastily crumpled it up angrily and threw it in the corner of her room. "Severus wouldn't want to hear me whining. He probably would just throw it away anyway."

The depressed little Jeanne rolled moodily over on her bed and curled up to herself. She buried her face in her pillow and tried to sigh the thought of Severus out of her. "He wouldn't want to hear from _me_," she said, muffled in her pillow. Vires picked unobservant on the floor at his mouse.

But somewhere, a hundred or so miles away, a letter from a familiar friend might have made Severus feel a little less lonely.

* * *

Author note: No. I know what you're thinking. She does NOT like Snivelly. Yet. (She's just a very...affectionate little girl. o.O

Oh! And I don't want Jeanne to sound like a paranoid whinner! Like Harry was with Malfoy in the sixth book. That was stupid, especially for a 16-year-old. She gets more crafty about her suspisions from here on out, but if she's still too whinny now or anytime later, feel free to hit me. And give advice about how to change it. If you hit me without explaining, I'll just bite you back. Thanks guys!


End file.
